Harry Potter: Metamorphosis
by WriteShop
Summary: People change, some more than others. Harry started out a slacker that kept his head down and tried to avoid trouble, but fate threw him into the maelstrom. Now, he can either succumb to the chaos that is his life, or face it head on. And grow into something, someone, new. Year 5 AU.
1. Prologue

This story is a continuation of Harry Potter: Zero, but it will make sense even if you don't read that one

**WARNING: there are spoilers in the reviews!**

.

**What has gone Before:**

A summery of "Harry Potter: Zero"

Harry Potter was sorted into Ravenclaw, not because he is a strong student, but because it is the least inappropriate house. In fact, he is a slacker who has tried to keep his head down and avoid attention in his first three years at Hogwarts. It is a survival skill that he learned living with the Dursleys.

He has avoided the Mirror of Erised, or of interacting with Quirrell or chasing into the Chamber of Secrets or any such extra-curricular activities. He is a mediocre student, mostly due to a lack of self confidence. He spends all his free time hanging out either with Neville, another insecure student from Gryffindor, or Draco, an abusive Slytherin who enjoys mocking Harry.

But in his fourth year, the triwizard tournament is announced, and somehow, his name is added to the roster of Champions. As Harry tries to prepare for a task that he know is beyond his abilities, a Beauxbatons professor, Adam Loew, volunteers to teach him Martial Arts, as a way to improve his self confidence. He also meets a severe young witch who is always hiding in Fleur's shadow – Hermione Granger, who transferred to Beauxbatons from Hogwarts during her first year.

As the tasks progress, Harry draws closer to his housemates, especially Terry and Luna. Luna has been at Harry's side for much of the year, often unnoticed, and as the year draws to a close, they start a sort of relationship, which forces a break between Harry and Draco, though oddly, Goyle is supportive of Harry, and himself draws away from Draco. Or perhaps not so oddly, as Goyle becomes romantically involved with Hannah Abbott.

While Harry's martial arts practice has the desired effect of improving his skills in his other subjects, Harry starts to love the disciple for itself, and he pulls in Ron, a driven, if not terribly bright, Gryffindor into joining him.

Despite the unexpected chaos in Harry's life, the school year goes well for Harry, and he manages to make a good showing at the tasks, even winning at the second task when he rescues Luna from the merfolk village. But the last task ends badly, as after an arduous race through a hedge maze laced with traps and monsters, Cedric lets him grasp the Goblet first.

Harry is immediately transported to a graveyard where Moody captures him and uses his blood to recreate Voldemort's body. Harry manages to steal Voldemorts wand as the Dark Lord is monologuing to his Death Eaters, and then flees for his life, leaving his own wand behind. After a desperate race through the graveyard, he grasps the Goblet again in the faint hope that it is a two way portkey.

And it is. It brings him back to the maze, where Cedric immediately demands that he go back to the graveyard. When Harry refuses, Cedric threatens him, and aims his wand at Harry. Feeling betrayed by all those he trusted, Harry lashes out with deadly force, blasting a hole in Cedric's chest just as the professors burst in through the hedge maze.

Harry end up arrested, but the other Champions give testimony that Cedric assaulted them as well, so there is a ray of hope for Harry. In the end, Harry is released to return to the Dursleys, until the trial.


	2. Chapter 1

"Get in the car, boy!" That was the greeting that Harry Potter received as he walked out of King's Cross station. The Hogwarts Express had pulled in a half hour ago, but Harry had had to drag his luggage around to the side, away from where the rest of the passengers were being picked up, because the Dursley didn't want to be associated with 'those kind' of people. But that was fine with Harry - he didn't want his classmates to meet his family. Or vice versa. It would just lead to humiliation.

And this year, he REALLY didn't want the Dursleys talking to the Wizarding folks. Not with all the gossip swirling around about what happened at the end of the triwizard tournament, and Cedric's death.

Harry dragged his trunk over to Vernon's car and popped the trunk. He had to load it all himself, as Vernon, Petunia and Dudley all sat in the car and waited. And they had apparently gone shopping earlier, so he had to be careful not to crush the Macy's bags that were already there.

Harry finished loading and got into the back of the car, next to Dudley, who was hammering away at a handheld game, '_Hasn't he outgrown those yet?'_ Harry mused.

"About time. Did you drag your feet on purpose, or are you naturally this slow?" fumed Vernon. Harry didn't reply. Petunia and Dudley also had nothing to say, so the car was silent, except for small electronic 'dings!' and 'Zaps!' As Vernon drove home.

Usually, when Harry came home for the summer break, he felt like he was in prison, with his time at Hogwarts a pleasant memory that sustained him until he could return to freedom. But this year, he didn't want to think about the magical world. Just a few days ago, he was held hostage and almost murdered by a Wizarding terrorist, and sometime soon, he would be going on trial for defending his life against another terrorist, this one a fellow student who he thought had been his friend. All of the magical world was turning against him: Professor Moody, who had turned out not to actually be Professor Moody, had organized his kidnapping. All of his friends had abandoned him.

So Harry shut down and didn't think about anything on the long drive home. Vernon had made a wrong turn and had managed to get stuck in a traffic jam for what felt like years. He cursed and yelled at the other drivers. Dudley played his game. Petunia sat stiffly, hands folded on her lap. Her only contribution to the oppressive atmosphere in the car was to remind Vernon about his blood pressure whenever he got too red in the face.

When the death car finally pulled into 4 Privet Drive, Harry grabbed his trunk and dragged it up to his room. He collapsed onto the bed and lay there until Vernon's bellow rousted him, "Boy, get down here and get started on dinner. I know they spoil you rotten at that school of yours, but here in the real world, you have chores to do!"

Harry staggered back down stairs and started cooking. Back before, he used to spit into the Dursley's food, or stick his (dirty) hands into it, but now it seemed all pointless. It didn't matter. Nothing really mattered. He just cooked up the food to their specifications and brought it to the table. As the family sat down, Harry took the tray of mashed potatoes and served himself. "You wait your turn boy!" Vernon yelled and grabbed mashed potatoes out of Harry's hands. Harry just looked at him. His face was completely expressionless. Vernon looked back for a moment, and then dropped his eyes in discomfort. "I don't know what manners THEY have.." began Petunia. Harry took the meatloaf and cut off a large slab for himself, acting as if Petunia wasn't even there. Petunia fell silent.

Vernon stood up "You show respect for your Aunt! We slave away to provide for you, and you should be grateful" He raised his hand as if to strike Harry. Harry turned to look at him. The complete lack of emotion in Harry's eyes unnerved Vernon. The boy wasn't reacting to his threats. Vernon was reminded of his trip to the Grunnings factory this past April. Harry was acting like those punks that hung out in the abandoned lot across the street from the factory building. The ones that he was certain would just as soon shiv him as talk to him. Vernon took a good look at Harry. The boy had grown, put on muscle. He was still small, but he wasn't a stick anymore.

Vernon lowered his hand.

Harry continued to eat, methodically chewing and swallowing.

Dudley looked on in amazement.

*Meta*Meta*

After the Dursleys had gone to bed ("early to bed and early to rise makes a body healthy, wealthy and wise' was their motto) Harry opened the door to his room and snuck quietly out. He glanced to see if light was coming from under Dudley's door - he was usually still awake, playing video games, but no, he apparently was emulating his parents now. Harry went down to the kitchen and got himself a soda. He had tried going to sleep, but whenever he closed his eyes, all he could see was Cedric with a hole in his chest. He thought about turning on the telly, but the noise might wake up the Dursley's, and he didn't want to deal with them again. That was when his eye caught on something new - there was carpet on the stairs leading into the basement.

Harry flicked on the lights and crept down.

"Huh."

The basement now had a cheap carpet, and was full of exercise equipment. Mostly free weights, but also a stair machine and several punching bags.

For the first time in days, Harry smiled. He started in on the heavy bag. First he went through a round of jabs, then started adding in crosses. Pretty soon, he was throwing 4-5 attack combinations.

"Why the hell are you humping my bag?" Harry turned to see Dudley standing on the stairs in his pajamas, staring at him. Harry had just finished up a combination by grabbing the top of the bag and yanking it in so he could drive his knee into it.

"I couldn't sleep, I found this here, so I decided to work off some energy." Harry replied.

"Yeah, well you're using it all wrong. You need to maintain more space. Here" Dudley walked down the rest of the way and over to the bag, He took a prize fighter's stance and slammed 1, 1-2 into the bag. "I'm taking boxing, so I know what I'm talking about. Now go to sleep before you wake up mom and dad." Harry watched Dudley go back up the stairs. He hadn't noticed, but a lot of Dudley's fat was gone, and he moved more easily.

*Meta*Meta*

"Crucio!"

The woman hanging between the two Death Eaters began to scream. As her writhing became too much for them, the two men dropped her and quickly stepped away, so as not to be accidentally caught by the spell. After a minute, the spell let up.

"I want all the recruits to be able to cast Cruciatus on a muggle" The voice was sibilant, hissing. "If they can not do so, then obliviate the test from their memory - they will provide financial support for the true Death Eaters.."

Harry awoke in a cold sweat. '_Shit. Now I'm dreaming about them.'_ Harry grabbed a drink of water and went back to sleep as best he could.

*Meta*Meta*

The following morning, after serving breakfast to the Dursleys, Harry snuck down into the basement. He was supposed to be doing the weeding, but what would Petunia do if he ignored her? Kill him?

Dudley was lying on the bench, lifting weights. Harry glanced at him surreptitiously before going over to the reflex bag.

Jab - jab -cross-jab-jab.

The two boys continued to work out like that for an hour, each pretending not to see the other, all the while staying out of each other's way.

"Hey, Potter, you want to box a couple of rounds?" Dudley suddenly asked.

Harry turned and considered the offer. It would be like his fantasy of beating up on Dudley, but safer. And if an elbow went too far, well that could happen. "ok"

*Meta*Meta*

"What are you, a girl?" Dudley snarled as he got back up. "Stop kicking!"

"Oh, yeah, I should just stand still and let you pound my face in, Dudders?" Harry jeered. They were out in the back yard, and he was feeling better than he had in days.

"No, but there is a right way to fight and a wrong way."

"And you have always fought the wrong way!" Harry kicked out at Dudley's midsection, but this time, the bigger boy was ready for the sneak attack, and he stepped to the side and threw a punch right into Harry's midsection, catching him under the ribs as Harry was recovering from his kick.

"Uff" Harry collapsed, stunned. Dudley stood waiting while Harry tried to suck in enough air. "You ok, Potter? You want me to call mom?" Petunia was out shopping, which is why the boys felt free to take their spar out into her prized backyard.

"I'll be fine" Harry staggered up. "I can take you."

"Not if you fight fair. I'm bigger and stronger."

"I do fight fair!" yelled Harry, "when the other guy wants to kill you or beat the crap out of you, then anything you do to that bastard is fair!"

Dudley paused at the angry diatribe, nonplussed. "Yeah, whatever. I'm going to call it a day." As he pulled his gloves off, he added, "You should get better gloves. Those aren't regulation."

Harry sighed and shook his head, '_That thick head is such a moron.'_ He pulled off his gloves - they only covered up to the knuckles, leaving his fingers free so that he could grab, '_he still thinks this is a game.'_

*Meta*Meta*

Harry took out Voldemort's yew wand. His wand now.

'_I hope there isn't some curse on this, making who ever uses it go evil.'_ Harry remembered the first spell he had cast with it was to kill Cedric. He put the wand away carefully. '_Maybe I should get a new wand.'_

These same thoughts had gone through Harry's head a billion times already. He had even considered just snapping the wand. But then, he wouldn't be a real wizard, and that scared him more than any dark curse.

*Meta*Meta*

The summer fell into a routine. In the mornings, Harry made breakfast. He then did some of the chores Petunia assigned - enough so that it looked like he wasn't slacking. Then he spent the afternoon working out. Twice more he tried sparring with Dudley, but both ended with Harry screaming at Dudley, and Dudley looking confused.

It was the start of the second week of July when he got the letters. First came a letter from the barrister that Dumbledore had hired - a Mr. Blittering - informing his that the trial would be on August 8. Harry had done his best to forget everything that had happened during the school year, and he had been successful. But now, his stomach roiled and he couldn't sit still. He grabbed a pair of garden shears and went outside to trim the bushes. He worked for the whole morning. By the time that he was done, almost all the green parts had been snipped off, leaving a winter skeleton. Which suited his mood just fine.

When Harry finally made his way back inside, he found another letter. This one was from Luna. Harry stared at it blankly for a moment before tossing it into his trunk with all of his other Hogwarts things. He wasn't ready to deal with the Wizarding world just yet.

*Meta*Meta*

"What is WRONG with you, Boy? Can't you do a simple task without screwing it up?" yelled Vernon. "Or are you trying to get out of doing your chores by doing everything wrong? Because let me tell you, people will notice, and nobody will want a cock-up like you. You will NEVER get even the lowliest job with that attitude!" The vitriol was prompted by Harry's bush trimming.

Petunia added "I don't want you touching anything in the yard again! it is obvious that you can't be trusted to act like a mature responsible young man, unlike Dudley."

"Then maybe you should have HIM do the yard work" snapped Harry.

"How dare you foist your responsibilities on to others!" roared Vernon, "Dudley is training, so obviously can't waste his time on simple things like gardening!"

"Yeah, whatever!" Harry grabbed his jacket and stalked out of the house. He went down to the little park down the street. He tossed the jacket on the ground and began to work his way through all the katas he knew. He put all the anger he had into them. '_That sucked!' _Harry stopped and caught his breath, _'I rushed all of them.'_

The second time he moved fast, but sharp, pausing slightly between moves so that they wouldn't all blur together. And then he did them again. He noticed that some people stopped to watch him, but they didn't say anything, so he ignored them. It was when dusk was falling that Harry stopped and sat down on his jacket, _'I forgot!_' He jumped back up and surreptitiously went over to the trash-bag where he had hidden all of his favorite things last summer. He opened it, only to discover that moisture had made its way in, and most everything had gotten destroyed by mold.

"Damn." He threw it all on the ground. And kicked it for good measure, '_Well, I didn't really need that stuff anyway'_. He stalked off home.

*Meta*Meta*

"Hey, Potter?" Harry looked up at the unusually tentative query from Dudley. He had just run through the first half of his katas.

"Yeah?"

"Can you show me how to do that?"

Harry quirked an eyebrow, then a small smile appeared, _'this will be amusing'_, "Sure why not."

Harry started coaching Dudley through the first few moves. "Now, stand lower"

"Why? You can't fight that way."

"It's exercise. It makes your legs stronger."

"Well, this is as low as I go."

"Fine, then. Now step. NO! Bring your feet together, THEN out! Put your hips into it." Harry watched as Dudley tried, but he lacked the flexibility.

Dudley stood up, "This is stupid. You do it your way, and I'll do it mine, and I will still cream you anytime in a fair fight." He walked off sulkily.

Harry bounced up to his room, in a cheerful mood. His view of Dudley as an incompetent loser had been validated. As he came in, he was surprised to see an owl sitting on his dresser.

"Come here girl" he took off the letter from her leg and read:

"Harry -

Hey, how are you doing? I haven't seen you since the end of term - want to drop by and hang out? (just no mary-huana plants this time).

- Neville"

Harry smiled '_This day keeps getting better and better.' _He grabbed his wand and some knuts and stormed down the stairs, "Tell Petunia that I'll be out till late."

"What about dinner?" Asked Dudley fearfully.

"Tell them to get take out!"

"Dad will be pissed."

Harry shrugged to say '_yeah, whatever'_, and let the screen door slam behind him.

*Meta*Meta*

Harry lazed around in the summer sun, as he and Neville listed to the Wizarding Wireless, "And the Cannons score! They are now in the lead 104-102!'

"Why is it, that no matter how well the Chudley Cannons do early in the season, in the second half they choke and die?" Neville asked.

"Don' know." Harry shrugged, "Maybe there's a curse."

"Nah - they have curse breakers on retainer. All the teams do"

"Maybe the curse is too powerful. Maybe they stole some ancient egyptian artifact."

"Or maybe You-Know-Who doesn't like orange." As Neville said it, his face froze and he looked fearfully at Harry.

Harry shrugged, and there was a long silence, only broken by the announcer on the Wizarding Wireless. "Thanks for not treating me like I'm a crazy."

Neville ducked down and pulled at the grass, "I, uh, I'm sorry if I acted like an idiot. I listed to too many of the morons in school. But Gran talked some sense into me."

"What did she say?" Harry asked. The eldest Longbottom had always scared him with her severe clothes and disapproving stare.

"She said that I knew you pretty well. And she asked me if you were the sort to make something like this up. After that, it was pretty obvious."

Harry nodded. Both boys sat listening to the quidditch match for a while.

"You know, if You-Know-Who is back, then we have to get more serious about DADA."

"Yeah, IF we have a decent teacher who isn't a Death-Eater" Harry scowled.

"After last year, Dumbledore is going to be a lot more careful with who he hires." Neville said hopefully.

"If Dumbledore doesn't get the can himself."

"I hope not. You don't get the Prophet, but Gran says that they have been running articles non stop about how You-Know Who isn't actually back. Without Dumbledore, we'll probably get another loser like Quirrell or Lockheart."

"Wait - you said the prophet is running articles claiming that I was lying?"

"Uhm, yeah" Neville couldn't meet Harry's eyes.

"Great. Just great!" Harry slumped backwards onto the grass. "This is going to be another WONDERFULL year at Hogwarts."

"Neville! Harry! Dinner."

"Oh, right - I forgot to ask - are you staying for dinner?"

Harry was about to say no, when it occurred to him that the number of friends he had this year might be very limited. Like, to one. And he was talking to him, "Yeah, I guess."

"Great" Neville let out a sigh of relief, "Gran hates it when she cooks food and there is nobody to eat it."

"Is her cooking good?"

"Uhm… You get used to it."

*Meta*Meta*

Harry ate happily. As Augusta Longbottom turned to get a pot of tea from the sideboard, Harry leaned over and whispered to Neville "Hogwarts has spoiled you - this is good meatloaf!"

"It's ALWAYS meatloaf," replied Neville.

"Manners!" The eldest Longbottom replied sternly "No whispering at the table."

"Yes, Gran."

Harry just rolled his eyes.

Augusta pretended not to notice - Harry seemed like a nice boy, and Neville needed more friends. _'though it is unfortunate how the younger generation has no discipline.'_

'_I might as well enjoy this. There's going to be hell to pay when I get back to __Privet__ drive' _Harry took a break to wash his food down, "This meatloaf is really good, Ma'am."

Augusta beamed. "Neville has been telling me about last year, and how you were learning muggle self defense. It's too bad that Neville didn't have the time to take the class."

"I don't think Professor Loew is going to be there this year - he's with Beauxbaton." Harry agreed mournfully.

"Could YOU teach Neville?"

"Uhm… Maybe?" Harry replied pensively, "I'm not very good."

"Yeah, but between you and Ron, you could teach me at least the basics." Neville added enthusiastically. "With all that's going on, I think I really should learn it."

"Ok. Though personally, I wouldn't trust Ron to teach much of anything."

"Ron Weasley?" Augusta's mouth pruned up, "I have to agree. A very ill mannered boy."

"No, I don't mean that he's bad at martial arts - he's worked at it really hard, and is actually pretty good. It's just that he sucks when it comes to explaining anything."

"And you think you can do better, young man?"

"Ah.. I'll try" Harry smiled nervously as Neville got up to bring another pitcher of water to the table. A little sweat trickled down his back. He was uncomfortable with being the center of attention "I'm curious - how come you don't have have House elves? You have Reedy." 'T_ime to change the subject'._

"Reedy is a field elf. He is part of the land." Augusta took a morsel of meatloaf and chewed methodically before swallowing, She then continued her explanation in the same slow, methodical manner as she ate her food. One tiny morsel at a time. "When the Longbottoms settled these lands, they tended the land with such diligence - planting local food, as well as exotic plants from South America that had been brought back by intrepid Wizarding explorers (They even planted tomatoes, which at the time was quite an innovation, I must tell you) - that the local nature spirits - Wood elves - did not flee in fear. Instead, they stayed, and changed with the land, becoming Field elves. And others Field elves came to be, over the course of many years. First came Hawthorn, then Reedy" Augusta cut another piece of meatloaf and began to chew.

"But.." began Harry hoping to steer the conversation to something less dull.

"Don't interrupt, young man - it is the epitome of bad manners. A House Elf is a domestic spirit generated when a home has been inhabited by wizards for generations." Augusta took a sip of water, and chewed *that* before continuing "Unfortunately, while Longbottom house is an old home" Augusta cut off another morsel with surgical precision.

'_Or an old age home' _Harry thought in frustration. _'I know all this.'_ But he didn't dare interrupt the creeping horror, for fear of being given the glare of doom, '_The plants in the greenhouse are faster than she is'_ Harry forced himself to smile, even as he felt his brain start to shut down.

"While Longbottom house is an old home, I am the only Longbottom, save Neville, who has lived here in almost a century. Frank was my only child, you see, and he almost never came home after he got his Hogwarts letter".

'_I wonder why.'_ Harry did his best to look attentive. Or at least awake.

"I had to let poor Quince and Quattella go last year before they died of abandonment. House Elves need a a living home."

'_And this is the house of the dead.' _Harry wiped the last of his meatloaf off his mouth. and carefully put his napkin on his plate. "That was fascinating, Mrs. Longbottom, Thank you. But I really should be getting home" Harry quickly said his goodbyes and fled before the resident zombie ate the rest of his brain.

*Meta*Meta*

"No, please I didn't have anything to do with it!" the the scrawny, balding man cried out as he kneeled on a hard cement floor. The only light came from a pair of torches off to the side.

"Oh, I know you didn't" soothed the hissing voice, "You have no reason to fear. I just want you to bring me a key to a certain room in the Ministry."

"I.. I don't have access to the keys.." whimpered the man.

"Well. You will have to fix that, won't you." The voice was still calm and friendly as it cast a bone breaker, shattering every bone in the whimpering man's arm. "Lucius, set that, will you?" Voldermoert walked off as his victim screamed in pain. "And don't bother making sure that the bones all line up right."

Harry woke up, staring at the ceiling. He rolled over and grabbed his watch from the night stand - it was the middle of the night again. '_Why am I seeing that? What does it mean?' _Harry wished there was an adult, some adult that he trusted enough to ask about his nightmare.

With a sigh, he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

*Meta*Meta*

It was almost a week before Harry got a reply back to the letter that he had sent to Professor Loew. Harry almost tore it off of the owl's leg.

"I am very glad to hear that you wish to continue studying the Martial arts, but unfortunately, there is no way that I can commit to teaching at Hogwarts this year. The best I can do is provide a couple of seminars, one in August, and one over winter break. - Adam Loew"

"Well, that's something" Harry smiled. This was the first piece of good news he had gotten this summer. Harry went downstairs and made his way down to the basement, where the clanking of the weights was punctuated by Dudley's explosive grunts as he worked out. Yet again. '_Should I invite Dudley to train with Professor Loew?'_ Harry considered the idea for some time, before turning on his heel and walking away. _'I'll send an invitation to Neville and Ron.'_

And after that, he'd go work out. Punching the bags helped him not think, and not thinking was good.

*Meta*Meta*

That evening, as Harry was finishing up cooking dinner, the telephone rang.

"Oi!, Potter, phone for you!" Dudley called from the living room. He had to yell over the sports program that Vernon was watching. "It's some girl - says her name is Luna Lovegood."

Harry froze. The unimaginable had happened. His wizarding life was being exposed to the Dursley's ridicule. '_How on earth did Luna get my phone number? How on earth did she get a PHONE?' _Harry started to hyperventilate, the skillet in his hand forgotten. _'The Dursley's are __interacting__ with my friends! And this isn't somebody staid, like Terry. It's LUNA. The reaction is going to be thermonuclear!'_

Dudley continued to stand by the phone, holding the receiver.

"BOY!" yelled Vernon, "Are you going to take the phone?"

Harry shook his head, "No, I'll talk to her later."

"What should I tell her?"

"That I will call her later. Then hang up." Harry mimed putting the receiver down.

Dudley shrugged and repeated what Harry had said. "Was that your girlfriend?" He asked as he hung up the phone. It wasn't clear if he was teasing or impressed. Maybe a little of both.

"No." Harry replied airily, "She's this weird girl from school. Not certain why she called."

Dudley nodded.

'_Thank god - I dodged that bullet.'_

After dinner, Harry quickly excused himself and ran up to his room to write a note to Luna, to make up for blowing her off earlier, '_But what do I write?' _Harry tried several times, but nothing came out. He would write a sentence, and then nothing. It was like there was a dam preventing anything from flowing out. He tried squeezing a few words past the blockage, but they sounded feeble even to him.. Finally, Harry gave up. He wrote:

"Hey, Luna.

How is your summer? I am not doing much. Just working out and chores and stuff.

I got together with Neville, but I haven't seen anybody else from school.

-Harry"

*Meta*Meta*

"Let go over wand defense" rumbled Adam Loew, "Face off with each other" He was addressing Harry and Neville, "This is mostly for Harry's benefit, as this material is above your current skill level, Neville. but after we are done with this exercise, Harry will drill you in the basics."

Harry and Neville lined up up about three feet apart and Neville pointed a stick at Harry, from almost point blank range. "This isn't realistic - most spells are cast from a distance."

"If they cast from a distance, you have time to apparate or cast protego." replied Adam in his calm methodical way, "but when they are this close, not only do you have less time, but having a wand jammed into your face is likely to make you panic, so we will practice this. These techniques can also be used with muggle handguns, with just a tiny change in how you grab your opponent's weapon."

For the next half hour, Harry learned how to drop his weight and turn so as to get out of the line of fire and then take control of the wand. Afterwards, Harry had Neville practice punching and blocking. It was nerve wracking - Harry kept glancing off to the side, where Professor Loew stood like a boulder, watching. "Stop. Harry, you need to call out corrections every few moves. You can't just keep calling out 'step'".

Harry nodded and swallowed, "I'll try."

Harry and Neville trained like that, six hours a day, for the rest of the week. By the time Friday rolled around, Harry moaned, "I don't think I can walk anymore."

"You and me both." Neville sighed, "But it's really good exercise."

"And the lunches that Professor Loew brings are definitely worth it" The reason they only worked out for 6 hours was because they took a two hour break in the middle for lunch. Though Harry had learned after the first day not to pig out, or the afternoon session would hurt a lot more. Instead, the three of them sat and relaxed, listening to Professor Loew tell amusing anecdotes about previous students that he had had.

"Too bad Ron couldn't make it"

Neville shrugged and looked uncomfortable, "don't take this the wrong way, but he might be avoiding you. The Daily Prophet smear articles are getting pretty intense - they are now claiming that you murdered Cedric, and that you are dangerously unstable."

Harry was silent for a moment, the guilt he felt over Cedric's death flaring up again before he forced it back down '_I didn't do anything wrong. He attacked me, I defended myself'._ "Oh, This isn't going to be good. I'm going to be more of a pariah than Luna."

"Well, in that case, it's a good thing that you are already dating her." Neville took a fighting stance, "let's go over those kumites again.

As the day drew to a close, Adam closed out the seminar, "Harry, you are making very good progress. Keep up the good work. And Neville, I am happy to see you taking an interest in Martial Arts. I know I have not had much time to teach you, but Harry can continue your instruction in the basics, and I can meet with both of you over winter break to see what you need to work on next. That means you, Harry, need to really concentrate on teaching, and not just training."

"Yes, sensei."

"Keep in mind what I told you - point out applications for the moves. And don't over correct - if Neville is just learning a kata or something, don't get bogged down in the minutia."

"Yes, sensei"

"Good luck with everything. I'll see you both in the winter, And you Harry, I will see in a couple of weeks. And don't worry - Fleur has already made out a deposition that Cedric held her under the Cruciatus. And with Krum's testimony, it's clearly self defense."

*Meta*Meta*

The summer continued monotonously, after the short break of the Martial Arts seminar. That and the fact that nobody from his wizarding friends sent him any owls made him feel isolated. He tried to send them an owl, but he couldn't figure out what to write. When the day of the trial rolled around, Harry was actually looking forwards to it, to finally get it over with. When Adam Loew showed up, Harry met him at the door and tried to rush him out.

"Before we go, your guardians need to sign some paperwork."

"What's this about?" Vernon asked more politely than his usual. The man in front of him was dressed in a rather good black suit, even if he had skipped the tie. He obviously wasn't one of THOSE people. Plus he was… largish. Not that Vernon was intimidated, because being intimidated would be childish. When the man spoke, he was very polite, but somehow, his voice reminded him of rocks being crushed into gravel. Not intimidated at all.

"Harry, did you tell your guardians about Cedric?"

"Uhm, no. Can we go?"

"I am sorry, but no."

"What's this? Who is Cedric?"

"Last spring, Harry was attacked by an older boy. Harry had to defend himself, and believing his life in danger, he used considerable force. The other boy, Cedric, ended up dead."

Vernon (and Petunia, who had come up behind him) stared aghast at Harry. "I knew it. I knew something like this would happen," he muttered.

"The fault does not lie with Harry." began Adam, but Vernon over-rode him, "I want you out, boy! I don't want you darkening this doorstep with your hoodlum ways!"

Harry stood, uncertain what to do. Vernon looked like he very much wished to push Harry out the door and slam it behind him, but there was the problem of the very large man standing behind Harry. "So.. what do you want?" he ended.

"There is going to be an inquiry this afternoon into the events. It will be fairly straightforward, for the evidence is clear that Harry was not at fault, but since Harry is a minor, you, as his guardian, need to sign several forms.."

"I'm not signing anything!" Vernon replied mulishly.

"They are just to verify Harry's identity, and that he is to be present as an individual, rather than as a member of a Noble family or ward of the state. It's all very routine" Adam continued, apparently unperturbed by Vernon glaring at him.

Vernon refused to budge. Finally, Petunia reached past him, "These are just legal papers to identify that Harry is Harry? They don't require us to do anything or take any responsibility for him, do they?"

"No, they do not."

"Fine. I'll fill them out." As Petunia got to work on the papers, Vernon continued to scowl. Once she was done, she handed them silently to Adam.

"Come along, Harry."

As the two people walked down the steps of #4 Privet drive, Vernon finally spoke up, "You're not welcome here anymore, boy. After the trial, take your things and go." He slammed the door.

"Hmm. I do not mean to insult your family, but your uncle does not strike me as the best of people."

"You can say that again." Harry ran a hand through his hair as his stomach roiled in anxiety, "What am I going to do?"

"Do you have any friends you could stay with for a few days? I will contact Albus and have him arrange for a long term solution."

"Why can't I live with you?" Harry asked desperately.

"I live in France, Harry, and while I do feel for you and am willing to go out of my way to help, I think we can find help closer at hand. Especially since as a British national without a passport, you technically can't even go to France. So take a few minutes to consider who you can stay with, and I will help get in touch with them." Adam lead the way to a tiny Volkswagen that was suspiciously larger on the inside.

Harry didn't pay any attention to the drive _'I could ask Neville - he'd take me in, and he has a huge house. but his grandmother is an eldrich horror. I can't stay with Draco - he said I was never to visit his home. plus, he was an asshole last year. Maybe Goyle?' _Harry kept going round in circles. The reality was, he didn't have many close friends, and of those, Neville was the only one whose home he had ever visited.

*Meta*Meta*

"This boy is obviously delusional, and in need of supervision." The barrister was winding up his presentation. Harry was in a courtroom that was presided over by a panel of three judges. In addition to them, there were the two barristers, several other witnesses (mostly Hogwarts faculty and students) and a small gaggle of spectators packed into the tiny visitors balcony like sardines.

"Are you arguing that he should be admitted to St. Mungo's?" asked the judge in the middle. Harry couldn't tell them apart - they were all wrinkled old men wearing huge, ornate robes and powdered wigs that spilled half way down their chests.

"Not at all, your honor, but I believe it would be in his best interests if Harry was declared a ward of the state and remanded to the care of a family that can better deal with a magical child with potential mental health issues. A muggle family just has no way to understand a magical child. They can not provide the support that Harry needs, and they will not be able to identify the danger signs if he has another, ah, 'episode'".

Adam placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, reminding him that he was to sit quietly until called on. Somehow, what was supposed to be a simple deposition had become a trial, with Harry's mental state as the defendant. It seemed likely that he would be found to be dangerously delusional and sent to an insane asylum or something.

The prosecuting barrister was not disputing that Harry had acted in self defense when he Reducto'd Cedric, but he somehow had segued onto the allegation that Harry had hallucinated the whole scene in the graveyard. And Robert Blittering, defending barrister, just nodded along in agreement. Harry looked around desperately to see if any white knight would ride out to his rescue. Dumbledore was in the witness bench, and he looked annoyed, but he wasn't doing anything.

"Very well, we will take that into consideration. We will hear the disposition of this child next. Court adjourned." the judge on the right pronounced. Nobody moved. "We will will now hear the the case for declaring the minor child Harry Potter a ward of the state and remanding him to the care of a suitable Magical family."

Harry turned to Adam in a complete panic, "How can they do that? Weren't they in the middle of the Cedric case?"

Adam scowled, "Jumping straight into the case without letting anybody gather a case… it seems like a put up job. Somebody bought the judges. This is very, very bad on many levels."

Before the prosecuting barrister could start his spiel, Dumbledore stood up, "Your honor, I think that leaving Harry with his family would be the healthiest thing for him, especially since there is no evidence that what he described was NOT the absolute truth." Dumbledore had drawn himself up to his full height, and spoke with such authority that he seemed to filled the courtroom.

"Sir Dumbledore, this court has not recognized you. Please refrain from making comments." groused the judge in the middle. He was barely visible under his wig and robe - he appeared like a scowling toad in comparison to Dumbledore.

"Given that this court has just brought the case and is now prosecuting it without the required 2 week interim waiting period, this court has no legal standing." Dumbledore pronounced, and there were murmurs of assent.

"Very well. This court will recess for two weeks" grumbled the toad.

As people milled about, Dumbledore made his way over to Harry and Adam, "Harry, my boy. there is nothing to worry about. I will see to it that you stay with the Dursleys."

"Um, Professor, as to that…" as Harry recounted what had happened that morning, Dumbledore's brow wrinkled in consternation. He swished his wand his hand and Harry felt a deadening of the ambient sound fall on him.

"That will make the whole situation much more complicated. Please don't tell anybody else about it - if this information were to become public knowledge too soon, then you would almost certainly be made a ward of the state."

"Would they send me to an insane asylum?" Harry held tight to the edge of his sweater.

"No, worse - you would be placed with one of the Dark pureblood families, and would most likely meet an unfortunate accident."

"What? Why?" Harry was friends with some kids whose families were referred to as 'dark'. Hell, Draco was an ass, but he wouldn't really try to hurt him!

"I can not explain right now, but Voldemort and his followers see you as a potential threat."

"Just because I took his wand? I can give it back to him! I don't want anything to do with it!" _'I can buy another wand.'_

"Harry, as I explained, that wand is rightfully yours by right of conquest under wizarding law. No," Dumbledore paused to gather his thoughts, "what you did was embarrass Voldemort in front of his followers, just when he needed to rebuild his reputation. He will never forgive you for that."

"Shit."

"Language, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore reached up and stroked his beard meditatively, "I know a good family that you can stay with. They have children your age - as a matter of fact, you may know them from school: the Weasleys. If we can establish you there, then that will give us some leverage to keep you out of the hands of the Death Eaters."

Harry nodded dumbly, '_Ron's not so bad. I could deal with staying with him. It's better than being dead, at least.' _"Ok, Professor. that would be great!"

*Meta*Meta*

That evening found Harry with his trunk by his side, spinning and dropping down to a rural field. _'I hate __portkeys.__'_

"Ah here we are!" Dumbledore brushed some dust off his robe. "And that is the Burrow," he pointed to ramshackle building. "Come, let us introduce you to Molly and Arthur."

Harry anxiously followed Dumbledore. He had never been good at meeting new people. As soon as Albus knocked on the door, there was a tumult from inside - a teen voice yelling "Mom - visitors!", "Arthur can you get that?" followed by the sound of something sizzling and popping.

The door opened to reveal a middle aged Weasley and the aroma of cooking. It was obvious that the man in the door was a Weasley, as he had the characteristic orange hair. "Ah, Albus, come in, come in. And you must be Harry. Welcome!" He stepped aside to let the non-Weasley's past the threshold.

Inside there was controlled chaos as several red-headed teens set the table, darting around a heavy set woman working two skillets and a pot on a large stove. "You're just in time for dinner, dear. Come, sit down. Albus, you too!" Molly caroled without turning around - she was busy simmering something and was shaking the pan with one hand as she adjusted the flame under the pot with the other.

"Thank you, Molly, but I have already eaten, but I am sure that Harry will be happy to oblige you."

"Oh, I know all about teenage appetites! Fred - take Harry's trunk up to his room."

Harry noticed the Terrible Twins - Fred and George._ 'Oh, maybe this won't be so good.'_ He had forgotten that they were also Weasleys. Molly finally stabilized dinner and turned to face her guests.

"Now I want to make some house rules clear - Dumbledore has spoken well of you, but I want to make sure that you understand that there is to be no fighting in our house - no rough housing. And I want your wand to be put away in your trunk until the start of the school year - we take under age wand use very seriously here, unlike SOME families." she gave Harry a stern glare.

"Yes, ma'am" Harry nodded, subdued, _'what does she expect me to go on a rampage or something? Like a spoiled 2 year old?'_

"Great" Molly beamed, "In that case, why don't you take a seat next to Ron. Albus?"

"I do have to get going Molly - but thank you for the invitation, and thank you for your help with Harry's situation." Albus nodded and turned to go.

"Oh, I'm not going to let a poor boy get placed with some unsavory family, especially if he has had a troubled past!"

As Harry sat down, Ron leaned over and whispered "Don't pay any attention to Mum - she takes what she reads in the Daily Prophet way too seriously."

"Do you believe that You-Know-Who is back?" Harry asked.

Ron shrugged, "Honestly, I wasn't certain at first, but all the nonsense that the Prophet has been printing about you the last couple of weeks makes me trust them a whole lot less. I don't know what happened to you at the end of the Third Task, but it sure as hell wasn't what the Prophet is claiming!"

"Language, Ronald!" Molly cried from across the room.

Ron rolled his eyes and mouthed, "she has ears like a bat."

Dinner at the Weasley was far more lively than at the Longbottoms. The twins talked non-stop, trading off talking while the other twin chewed, and the other Weasleys weren't shy either, though Molly periodically (and futilely) enjoined them to "take turns talking."

"Oy, Potter, so are you going to be inviting your girlfriend over?" asked Fred.

Harry spluttered, "Luna and I aren't dating!"

"Well, keep faking it - you need to set a good example for Ronnie-kins" added the second.

"Fred!" warned Molly

The other twin leaned over conspiratorially, "You see he hasn't worked up the gumption to ask a girl yet, so he needs all the role models he can get".

"Fred!"

"What?" asked the twin that had been eating quietly.

"I'm George" added the troublemaker.

"Fred, You have kitchen duty tonight!"

"Aww!" whined the one that had claimed to be George.

"So what is this about you dating Luna?" asked Molly.

"Nothing!" Harry denied vehemently, "Luna is just a friend, and somebody started a rumor. That's all!"

Molly nodded, "Rumors are horrible things. They can ruin, completely ruin a persons reputation. I make a point never to spread gossip around. Not after what happened to poor Selena. She was just about to get married to a very promising young man when.." Ron rolled his eyes and jerked his head towards the door.

"Excuse me, mam, but may I be excused?" Harry quickly interrupted.

"Why certainly. Go, shoo, shoo. Have fun."

Harry and Ron fled.

*Meta*Meta*

That evening, As Harry tossed some clothes into the dresser, Ron knocked on the (open door) and leaned in, "So, you want to spar?"

"I thought your mother said no rough housing"

"We'll do it outside, in back"

"I don't want to get in trouble on my first day."

Ron sighed, "How about katas, then? I can't remember half of them, maybe between the two of us, we can figure them out. I don't know what we'll do without a Professor Loew."

Harry paused and then nodded in agreement, slamming the bureau shut.

They went out into the back. The twins were zooming about on brooms, throwing a quaffle around. "Hey, you want to join us for a pickup game? Two on two?"

Ron shook his head no as Harry called, "no, thanks."

The two boys started off with their first kata. As they went through the forms, the twins slowed and stopped, hovering their brooms as they watched. Half way through, Ron stumbled and had to stop as he tried to remember the moves

Harry continued, moving with precision. Two quick moves, then a slight pause before he exploded into the next two.

"Wow." As Harry finished and stepped into a ready posture "That was kind of cool."

"You got to show me how to do that - I blanked out halfway through!" Ron nodded.

"You were pretty blank at the beginning, too, Ronnie-kins" snorted a twin. "We'll stick with quidditch" The other added. The twins went back to tossing the quaffle. "Hey, I had a thought - can you do karate on a broom?"

*Meta*Meta*

The two weeks until the second trial passed quietly. Harry was too anxious to do anything or to plan anything. He kept himself from thinking by training with Ron. The twins coaxed him up onto a broom a couple of times as well. Which wasn't as bad as he he feared it would be - Harry was a decent flyer, if too cautious, and the twins weren't as mean as he thought they would be. They even gave him some pointers.

All too soon, he found himself back in the same courtroom, facing the Three Evil Toads, with only Blittering as his champion. _'I'm doomed'_. Blittering was a short, dapperly dressed man with a tendency to bob his head when he spoke. To Harry, it made him look like a pigeon. A particularly nervous pigeon.

Except this time, it was the Two Evil Toads, and a stern middle aged woman. Also, the courtroom was less full. The spectator gallery had a number of well dressed people, including Lucius Malfoy (who was seated near a frumpy pink creature), but the witness area was empty.

"Your honors, upon the previous advice of the court, Mr Potter has already been placed with a respected wizarding family, so there is no need for these deliberations." Blittering bobbed.

"Objection," The prosecutor stood up, "The Weasleys are not on the approved list."

The lead toad..erg judge opened his mouth to say something when the woman judge caught his eye, a glower of disapproval on her face. The judge glanced at the prosecutor, down at something on his desk, then back at the woman, "erm, that list will be taken into consideration"

"The court agreed that the boy would be put in the care of an approved family."

"Er, yes, but that list is of recommended families, NOT an _exclusive_ list of approved families." The lead judge was looking decidedly nervous, disagreeing with the prosecutor. He glanced up at Dumbledore, who was seated in the spectators gallery before leaning over to discuss something with the other two judges.

"Who is the woman judge?" Harry whispered to Blittering.

"That is Madam Bones - she's high up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Rumor is she's going to be appointed head next time there's a re-organization"

The barristers waited quietly while the judges mulled over the situation. Finally, Madam Bones pronounced, "It is the opinion of this court that Mr. Harry Potter remain in the care of the Weasley on a probationary basis for the rest of the summer. Baring any unforeseen circumstances, he will continue in their care until he reaches his majority! Case dismissed!"

The judge in the center crumpled a piece of parchment into his hand and promptly scuttled off, his robe trailing behind him in a slug-like fashion, leaving his two compatriots agape.

*Meta*Meta*

After the drama of the courtroom, the rest of the summer was uneventful, punctuated only by Ron Weasley being appointed a prefect.

"How did this happen?" Fred stood, gob smacked, looking at the badge that the delivery owl had brought. "When did little Ronnie-kins get to be such a goodie-two-shoes?"

"I remember the old days, when he would join us in our adventures, frolicking through the flowers, but I guess that's all at an end." mourned the second.

"Don't be childish", scolded Molly, "Ron worked hard for this." The family was seated in the den. Arthur had put down the sunday paper when the hubbub had started, and Molly had come in from the kitchen.

"Yes, Ron really has put his nose to the grindstone." she turned to her youngest child. "You're an example for the whole school."

At the same time one twin leaned over to Harry and whispered, "maybe WE should put his nose to the grindstone." But Harry had learned to ignore such ominous whispers from the two troublemakers, for they did not mean it.

The other twin added, "Ron really does deserve it - After Ginny died, he's become really serious. Maybe too serious. I just hope he doesn't end up like Percy" Percy had apparently had a falling out with the rest of the family over whether Voldemort was actually back or not. He hadn't visited once while Harry was living there, communicating exclusively through Owl post.

"Soo.. can I have a broom?" Ron asked, "You know, as a reward?"

Molly sighed indulgently, and after a quick questioning glance at Arthur, replied, "We will see if there is anything in our price range when I go get school supplies on Tuesday."

Ron was almost bouncing with glee for the rest of the day, and even Harry got pulled into the inevitable game of quidditch.

* * *

><p>Fanfiction is fueled by reviews, so please add your $0.02<p> 


	3. Chapter 2

"Now, don't forget to write. I want to know all about your year," Molly said to Ron. It was the start of school, and they were on platform 9 ¾. The twins had already darted off and boarded the train, but Ron wasn't quick enough, and was now trapped. Harry was standing by his friend, as a show of support.

"And let us know if any girl catches your eye" Arthur elbowed Ron with a wink.

"Oh, yes, do. And if you come across any muggle first years who appear especially lost during the course of your prefect duties, give me their names so that I can send them some baked goods. A good apple pie or some rock cakes will cheer them up."

Ron rolled his eyes, "I will mom. Bye now. Bye dad!" and made his escape. As he and Harry made their way down the train looking for an empty compartment, he sighed. "Great. Only my mom would give out chores to do while I'm away at Hogwarts."

"What chores?"

"You heard her - I have to look for 'especially lost' firsties and report them to her. If I don't give her at least a couple of names, I'll hear about it over Christmas break." There didn't appear to be any empty compartments. "Oh, there's Luna!" Ron pulled open the compartment door and the two boys slid in.

"Hey Luna, How was your summer?" Harry asked, sitting down next to the blond Ravenclaw.

Luna looked up, puzzled, "Do I know you?"

"Um, yeah, it's me, Harry," Harry stuttered awkwardly.

"Sorry. The name doesn't ring a bell" She went back to reading the Quibbler. Harry Looked at Ron. Ron looked at Harry.

"Uhm…"

Luna lowered her paper and peered at Harry, "did you want something?"

"Um, no?"

Luna raised the paper again, like a blast door from from the Star Wars movie. The atmosphere in the carriage was rather uncomfortable.

"I just remembered - all the prefects have to go up to the front carriage. I'll see you at school!" Ron said too brightly and slid out of the compartment. The two remaining teens sat in silence for a moment. Several other students peered in, and one even opened the door, but on seeing Harry, they all backed out and kept on going.

"Luna?" Harry tried again. There was no response._ 'Did something happen to her over the summer? Did she get obliviated or something? Or maybe some of her weird creatures really do exist. What did she call them.. ' _"Um, Luna did Racksputs.." was as far as Harry got before Luna interrupted with a "Gesundheit"

"Hey, Harry!" a voice called out as the door opened again.

"Neville!" _'thank Merlin'_ "Take a seat - I think we're about to get under way." The rest of the trip the two boys made fun of the Chudley Cannons (in part because Harry had just learned that Ron, beyond all reason, actually liked the team). When Neville wasn't looking, Harry stole glances at Luna, but the distracted blond continued reading her paper. Once she was finished, she peered out the window. When Neville tried to include her in the conversation, she just held up her hand.

"Don't bother, Nev. She's in a mood" Harry added, "So.. are you still dating Susan?"

"No, we broke up a couple of weeks ago. It's not that big a deal - we didn't really have anything to talk about."

"Oh." Harry paused considering how to rephrase his question, "So, do you happen to know if Susan is any relation to Amelia Bones?"

"I think she's her aunt. She works in law enforcement. Why? Did you run into her at the trial?"

"Yeah, she was at the second trial, and a good thing too!" As Harry spoke, Luna perked up and tilted her head away from the window so that she could hear better. "Remember the Evil Toads I told you about? She replaced one of them, and put the fear of.. something into one of the others. Otherwise they would have sent me to live with some Death Eaters, and I'd be pushing up daisies" Harry shuddered. Luna twitched, before resting her head back down on the window.

*Meta*Meta*

"What the hell are those?" Harry boggled. The Hogwarts Express had pulled into Hogsmead station. As the First Years were led away by Hagrid to the waiting boats, the upper years had made their way to the self propelled flying coaches. Except they apparently weren't self propelled: standing between the traces were rotting horses.

"What are what?" asked Neville, looking confused, "Did they change the carriages or something?"

"Or something - can't you see the zombie horses - excuse me, zombie WINGED horses - that are pulling them?"

"Dude, are you ok? I think you're seeing things" _'either that, or you spent too much time with Luna' _Neville left that part unspoken.

At which point the blond girl in question walked by, "welcome to my world" she chirped, and kept on walking.

'_Oh, shit. Luna did something to me. Now I'm hallucinating.' _Harry ran after Luna, "Luna, I'm sorry for whatever I did to you, but…" She stepped up into a carriage and closed the door. Harry stood there, dumbfounded. He desperately wanted Luna to undo whatever she had done to him, but there were three other girls in the carriage already, and he would look like a complete dork standing there pleading for who knows what. The other students walked by, carefully pretending not to see Harry while stepping around him.

It was there that Goyle found Harry, "Oy, Potter, that carriage is full. Come sit me and Hannah."

"But…" Harry glanced at the zombie horse, '_Maybe if I pretend it's not there, it will go away.'_ "Ok, I guess" Harry and the happy couple got into an empty carriage. "So.. how was your summer?"

"Oh, it was wonderful," smiled Hannah, "Greg came by almost everyday. And he took me out to the muggle cinema. Have you ever been? It's really wonderful. I didn't know muggle had such amazing things. Though the selection of junk food there was horrifying! So the next time we went, I brought some cookies and carrot sticks."

Goyle nodded with a big smile, "Yeah, I'm on a diet." Harry gave the Slytherin another look: apparently, he was just starting it, since he hadn't yet lost any weight. Not that Goyle noticed - his attention was firmly planted on Hannah, who in turn spent most of her time looking at him, and holding his (ample) arm.

Harry also smiled, though his was more sickly, _'I hope I'm still hallucinating'. _He desperately looked around for somebody else to invite into the carriage to break up the weirdness, but nobody was close by. Finally, his eyes caught something outside, "Hey, Neville! Over here!"

The slightly dumpy fifth year climbed in, and the conversation turned to more normal topics, like school, sports and teachers. '_Thank Merlin.'_

*Meta*Meta*

"And I would like to remind all students that the Forbidden Forest is, indeed forbidden." Dumbledore was just winding up his usual start-of-term feast remarks when there was a pointed "herm, herm".

Harry had been zoning out, playing with his / Voldemort's wand with one hand while supporting his head with the other. Over the course of the summer, he had come to accept it as just a tool, not some sort of curse item that would make him turn evil. And it was cool looking. Harry sighed as he waited for the talking to be over so he could get to the important part of the start-of-term feast. Namely, the eating. That and he was still a little concerned about whatever was going on with Luna. But since she was avoiding him, and he hadn't had any more hallucinations, he figured it could wait until after he ate.

"Herm, herm" Harry looked up to see the pink toad from his hearing interrupt Dumbledore. "Ah, yes, Professor Umbridge would like to say a few words."

"Hem-Hem... Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome. I would like to correct some misconceptions before all you young people go off to your separate classes" Harry wracked his memory for why she was there _'that's right - Dumbledore said she's going to teach DADA'_. "Some people have been spreading rumors of all sorts. and that leads to panic. In the future, we will concentrate on what is tried and true. We will maintain that which must be maintained. Most of all, calm and decorum. The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of a vital importance. Although each headmaster has brought something new to this... historic school, progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected and prune practices that ought to be... prohibited!" All of this was pronounced in a high pitched, fluting voice that became increasing more difficult to listen to the longer that she spoke.

"Did she say what I think she said?" asked a female voice from his left. Harry jerked up and looked over in surprise. "Hermione? What are you doing here?"

The severe young witch sighed, "Honestly, Harry how oblivious can you get? I've been sitting here for the past ten minutes!" and apparently stewing for at least eight of them, when the only person at Hogwarts that (she had thought) was her friend blew her off.

"Sorry, I was falling asleep" Harry replied sheepishly, "I thought you were at Beauxbatons?"

"Well, I," Hermione started in a whisper, but apparently it wasn't quiet enough, as one of the Prefects leaned across the table and shushed. The two teens quieted while Her Pinkness finished speaking.

Once the food was summoned, Hermione continued, "I graduated Beauxbatons, contingent on me finishing up DADA. That was the only class that I was taking at grade level, you see. The others I was three years ahead in." despite her attempt at nonchalance, her pride in her accomplishments was quite obvious.

"Yeah, but why here?" Harry wolfed a bite of bread pudding, "Mind, not that I'm complaining - it's good to see a friendly face." Harry was an island unto himself - no other Ravenclaws were sitting next to him. Terry and his clique were at the far end of the table. Though honestly, Harry didn't mind so much - it was quieter this way.

Hermione picked at her asparagus, "I want to take my OWLs, so that I can get a job in Britain. I can prep for those more easily here than in France. Besides, if I get a Ministry position, I'm probably going to be working with Hogwarts alumni, so it makes sense to get to know them now." She took a dainty bite, "Were you paying attention to Prof. Umbridge said?"

"Uhm, not really?" Harry ripped into his chicken. "Did I miss something?"

"I'm not certain. But it sounded like she wanted to scale back the curriculum."

"Well, it's only in the one class" Harry shrugged. He liked DADA, but he never had high expectations of the class.

"Yes, but that's the one class I am here for!" Sighed Hermione. She fiddled with her glass of pumpkin juice, "Harry.. what you said last year.. Is You-Know-Who back?"

Harry froze and glanced at the other students around them, but they were engrossed in their own conversations, "Yeah, It's true."

Hermione nodded, and gave a sigh, as if accepting something she had hoped to avoid, "But doesn't that mean we should be cramming more into DADA? Because, you know.. because maybe, somebody might have to defend themselves, form a troll or a Death Eater or something." Hermione was uncomfortable with the idea of fighting. She would rather 'The Authorities' handled any problem. But sometimes, a troll cornered you in the girls bathroom, and you had to be prepared.

"Well, maybe she meant that she would go back to teaching DADA the old fashioned way, because I have to tell you, except for last year, DADA has been pretty useless. First two years, the professors didn't actually teach anything, and third year, professor Lupin was sick so often that we spent more time reviewing than learning new material. And last year, we had a Death Eater for a teacher" Harry scowled.

Hermione put a hand on Harry's arm to reassure him, "Maybe you're right. we will see tomorrow - We have DADA second period."

Harry glanced at his schedule "Hey, I have a free first period!" '_I can get some training in before class'_. Then something else jumped out at Harry - all of his classes were at grade level - no remedial charm, no tutoring. _'Huh. when did that happen?'_

*Meta*Meta*

"Hey, Ron - you want to hit the dojo before class tomorrow? I have a free first thing." The feast was winding down, and Harry had taken the opportunity to drop in at the Gryffindor table.

"Uhm, sorry, no. I have class" Ron glanced up at Seamus and Lee Jordan nervously. The two boys sitting opposite him were watching Harry, looking uncomfortable, "Look, I gotta go". Ron stood up and made his way for the door leading to the Gryffindor dorms. Seamus and Lee quickly followed.

'_Huh. Wonder what's going on in his head.' _Harry headed back the the 'Claw table, nonplussed. _'After the summer, I thought we were friends. Oh, well, there's always Neville.'_

*Meta*Meta*

While Harry did a couple of preliminary stretches in the dojo, he was somewhat surprised to see Neville walk in. "Hey, can you show me some of the stuff from over the summer?"

"Sure, as long as I can use you as a practice dummy for the material that I'm working on."

"That's a deal!" Neville beamed.

The two boys went at it. Harry was pleasantly surprised at how much Neville remembered, '_He's a lot faster learner than Ron' _"Sink down - you're stance is too high - ok that's good. Now, I want to you to punch at me, and I'm going to defend myself and take you down to the ground."

Neville threw a punch - a solid jab, and Harry slid off to the side and parried it past him, as his other hand lashed out to pin Neville's second arm to his body before he could throw a punch with it. As Neville recovered, he got a palm to the face followed by a light jab to the kidney.

Neither hit hurt, as Harry pulled them, but they made Neville turn sideways, so Harry continued the motion, twisting Neville's face like a light-bulb as he pushed on his side. Neville dropped like a sack of potatoes. Harry followed him down and and mimed a strike to his left eye, followed by a jab to the throat. He then leaped back and slid ten feet away, slapping his side.

Neville rolled over and stood up.

"You ok?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Ok, then let's do that again, but a little faster.:"

*Meta*Meta*

"This year, we will begin to learn transfiguration that does not rely on any of the Laws of Similarity. But not to worry," Mcgonagall gave a small smile to her students to put them at their ease, "we will take a few classes to build up to that level: the first item will be somewhat of a review. We will transfigure a dinner plate into an owl. You will find the materials on your desks. Proceed at your own pace."

McGonagall then wandered the class as the students all concentrated on the large piece of pottery on the desk in front of them.

"That looks good, Terrance. but smooth out the motion - your shoulders are too tense.

Padma, a little lens intense - you want an owl that can move, not a statue of an owl.

"Harry…" sigh "You need to visualize the transformation."

"I do visualize it" Harry lowered his wand, almost slamming it into the edge of the desk in frustration. "Maybe it's this wand.." He looked at the large yew wand that he had taken from Voldemort.

"The wand is fine. Acquiring a wand by force of arms, while a somewhat obsolete technique, is a functional way to bond the wand to yourself. No, Harry the problem is within you. You need to believe that you can transform the plate. See it in your minds eye."

"All I see is a plate."

"Mmm. That is a problem some wizards have - a too literal view of the world. And a difficult block it is to overcome. Take a break. Relax. Try to view the world in a more 'playful' fashion."

Harry's brain froze. The idea of the severe transfiguration professor telling him to be more 'playful' just was not something that he could process._ 'Well, she wasn't always an old, dried up prune. At one point she must have been a young witch' _The image of a teenage McGonagall in a two piece bathing suit popped into his minds eye. And promptly transfigured into the old, dried up McGonagall in the same two piece. 'T_oo much visualization!' _He felt his gorge rise.

"Uhm, may I be excused to go to the loo?" Harry fled.

*Meta*Meta*

"Can you believe those buffoons?" Hermione steamed as she caught up to Harry later that morning. Harry looked around, trying to determine which buffoons Hermione was referring to - there were so many possibilities.

"Um, no?"

"They put up these posters asking for volunteers to test their joke products. They're going to get expelled!" Hermione pointed to the offending advertisement.

"Oh, the Weasleys twins!" Harry smiled, relieved to have solved the riddle of the buffoons. "They're actually not so bad, once you get used to their sense of humor. I lived with the Weasleys for a couple of weeks this summer."

"But they are putting up posters asking people to volunteer to break school rules! What kind of idiots are they?"

"Well, that's why they are in Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw, but they really are very good inventors - I doubt Dumbledore will do anything bad to them." Harry tried to come up with something else to say. He had never been a good conversationalist, but Hermione was one of the few people who were willing to talk to him, so he wanted to keep her friendship. Maybe a non-verbal approach might work "Do you want me to carry some of that?" He pointed to the huge stack of books jutting from her book-bag.

"Um, ah, no. we're almost there" she stammered, blushing. They were approaching the DADA classroom, so there really was no point. Just then, the door opened and the fourth year Ravenclaws streamed out. Including Luna.

Luna paused when she saw Harry. Her eyes flickered to Hermione before she leaned over and pronounced, "Oh, hi, Hermione! You're in for a treat in Defense!" and she skipped off.

"I thought you two were dating?" Hermione asked, puzzled at Luna's behavior.

"No, I think we're just friends, though Luna is odd enough so it's hard to tell sometimes." Harry shrugged noncommittally, trying to distance himself from the confusion that was Luna.

Harry, Hermione and the rest of the fifth year 'Claws made their way into the DADA classroom, to find it decked out with little round tables, each one will a doily in the middle.

"Hem, herm. Good morning class. As you can see, we will be doing things a little differently in my class. You can put your wands away, we won't be needing them. We will spend most of our time delving into Defense Theory, and discussing it in small groups."

Harry rolled his eyes. He resigned himself to another useless year. He took a seat next to Hermione at an open table.

But apparently not everybody had. "Professor Umbridge, if You-Know-Who really IS back, shouldn't we spend more time on the practical applications of defense?" asked Hermione, her hand in the air.

"Herm, herm. Next time, please wait to be called on, miss…" The toad looked down at a class register, "Granger. And there is no need to spread panic with baseless rumors. The Ministry is investigating these ridiculous allegations, but at this time there is no evidence to support them. Now, class please turn to page 6 and read the first chapter on the Blood Taint, and how it is spread by creatures such as Werewolves and Vampires. Once you are done, I would like you to discuss amongst yourselves. At the end of class, each group will present their ideas."

Harry opened the book and glanced at the first chapter. He, like most of the other Ravenclaws, had already read the first chapter. It talked about how Lycanthrope and Vampirism weakened a wizards magic, and traced the effects to the 'Blood Taint' that caused both conditions.

"This is tripe!" whispered Hermione. "The book makes it out like Vampirism and Lycanthrope are part of the same disease, but there is no proof for it: Vampires never create werewolves and vice versa!"

"Hem, Hem!" The toad interrupted, "Discussion will be in the second part of the class. Right now I would like you to read the book."

Terry raised his hand, "Professor Umbridge, our group has already finished the chapter, so we would..."

"Well, young man!" Her Pinkness replied in annoyance at the audacity of this student to interrupt her carefully scripted class. "Please read more carefully. Remember, you are Reading for Ideas!"

The class of scholars-to-be looked bewildered as they were told so do something that they had been doing since before first year. Some reread the material, while others started to read ahead. Harry just leaned over the desk and started to doodle in his book. After a painful twenty minutes, Umbridge opened the class for discussion, at which point Hermione's hand shot up. "Professor, The Blood Taint theory espoused by this book lacks any empirical evidence to support it. And I was.."

SLAM! Professor Umbridge brought a book down on her table, "I will not have your theories undermining this class, little girl! Detention, Miss Granger! See me after class!"

*Meta*Meta*

After dinner, Harry got in a spot of training and then went up to the 'Claw common room to get started on his potions homework - Snape didn't believe in wasting time: first day of class, and he had already assigned a full load of homework. It was almost ten before he was done, and the common room was full of students chatting or playing cards. Harry glanced around "Hey, Padma - have you seen Hermione?"

The Indian girl looked up, and debated whether to reply, before saying, "I think she's still down in detention."

"Huh. That's a long detention." Padma just shrugged, turning back to her book.

Harry pulled out his Defense book and started reading ahead. As ten thirty rolled past, most of the students headed up for bed under the urging of the painting of a matronly witch..

Harry resolutely ignored them. By eleven, the painting was deeply engrossed in her knitting, and even the upperclassmen had gone upstairs, except for one couple who were talking intently by the fire.

Finally, Hermione arrived, looking haggard.

"Hermione? Are you ok?" Harry went over to the bushy haired girl in concern. He put his hand out to steady her, just in case.

"I'm fine, just tired," she smiled wanly, stepping around Harry's arm and fled upstairs to the girls dorms.

*Meta*Meta*

It was sunny, bright day, with green trees all around the cottage.

"Here, eat this" Cedric thrust a shiny red apple at Harry. Harry took it tentatively. "Go on. It's good for you. Your relatives don't feed you right, so you need the vitamins."

Harry nodded and took a bite. the second the apple touched his mouth, he felt sleepy and started to sway. '_Mustn't fall asleep!' _Harry forced his eyes to stay open. It was a huge struggle - first one eye would close, and he would force it open, only to discover that the other had closed.

"Get in!" demanded Cedric, pointing at a cat carrier. The giant hole in his chest was sucking all the color out of the world.

"But, I won't fit!" replied Harry.

"I don't care. I promised Voldemort that I would bring you to him!" Cedric grabbed Harry and jammed his head into the cat carrier. Harry fought back, but slowly more and more of him was shoved into the claustrophobic confines.

Harry jerked awake in a cold sweat. '_This one was all me.'_ He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the top of his bed. it was the middle of the night, and still fully dark. _'I have nightmares about Cedric betraying me and take me to Voldemort. How come I don't have any about killing him?' _Guilt began to gnaw away harry.

After tossing and turning for a good while, He finally got up with a sigh, '_I might as well read. sleep isn't happening'_

*Meta*Meta*

The next day, Harry didn't see Hermione at breakfast, which was not that surprising, as all she had that morning was OWL review and then a seventh year Arithromancy seminar that she was auditing.

"Hey, Harry - I haven't seen you at SPEW." Harry looked up to see Lavender. She had a bunch of signs about the first SPEW meeting of the year.

"Ahm.." Harry didn't want to say that the only reason he even joined was to hang out with Parvati. Especially since that whole thing had ended up bombing badly. "I don't think that would be a good idea. You know, being associated with me right now." _'though come to think of it, it's kind of nice that __Lavender__ still wants me to come.'_

Lavender cocked her head as she considered "I guess you're right. Thank you for staying away." and she walked off quickly.

Harry shook his head in bemusement, '_She's dumber than Parvati. And I'm still not certain what I saw in THAT ditz.'_ He threw his napkin onto his plate and made his way to class.

As Harry made his way out to the Herbology greenhouse, his mind drifted back to Hermione. something had seemed off about her, _'she looked .. rumpled - She's usually a neat freak, with her hair pulled into a bun.'_

"Harry. Earth to Harry" Harry looked up. Neville was holding out twine and stakes, "We need to tie up the the Engorgantus Cucurbita - they are getting too heavy for the vines."

"Yeah, ok" Harry grabbed the proffered tools and went to work with Neville, "Can you believe DADA this year?" Neville continued talking as he gently teased the gourds into place so that Harry could tie them to the support stakes., "Umbridge claims she wants us to discuss defense theories. She even has us sitting at round tables. All of which is ok, but she then spent all of class walking around and if anybody actually started to question any idea from the text she shut them down and even took away house points. How can you have a discussion if you aren't allowed to disagree?"

"Yeah, I know. And when the new girl, Hermione, challenged her and showed that she was full of it, Umbridge had her in detention for half the night, and Hermione looked really frazzled when she came back."

"Frazzled how?" asked Neville

"I don't know - I was trying to figure it out just now." Harry said forcefully, in exasperation. The green gourd that he was tying up to a stake swelled to twice it's size and turned yellow

"Shh!" don't startle it!" whispered Neville. He started crooning a lullaby to the squash.

Harry put an extra scoop of dirt into the pot that they were working with. "I think.. you know how she's always meticulously dressed, not even a strand of hair out of place? Well, she looked frizzy when she came back."

"Maybe she was just cleaning the classroom without her wand, or something," Neville quoted a popular Detention pastime that many professors inflicted on erring students (at this point, the Weasley twins were experts – their cleaning skills would put Molly to shame.).

Harry glanced at Neville, "Hey, Nev.. Thanks for not treating me like some sort of pariah, like the rest of the school."

Neville gave self deprecating shrug, "I wouldn't do that, you're my friend."

"Well, even Ron blew me off, and I spent half the summer living with him and his family!"

Neville sighed, "Ron.. Ron's a nice guy, and he's a hard worker, but he's not as smart as his older brothers. So he's a little insecure. He just scared that people won't like him if word gets out that he's friends with you."

"So much for Gryffindor courage" scowled Harry.

"Yeah, well… Some things are scarier than others. I bet he would have no problem facing down a Death Eater."

Harry snorted in amusement at the image. "Maybe." Harry continued to work silently for a few minutes, "So, what are you scared of?"

"Gran" Neville replied without hesitation, making Harry smile. "How about you?"

Harry paused. So many, many things in his life made him uncomfortable or embarrassed or nervous in some fashion. But which of these negative feelings was fear? "I have no idea" Harry answered honestly. After some deliberation, he added, "Maybe I should find out, though." Was being embarrassed by what your friends did the same as being scared of the Death Eaters?

*Meta*Meta*

"Hey, Draco…" Harry walked into 'Draco's' classroom. As usual, almost all the desks were pushed off to one side, except for the ones that the boys were using as seats. Currently the only ones present were Draco and Crabbe.

"What do you want, Potter?" Draco scowled and looked away.

"I thought that we could make a fresh start, you know, hang out like we used to." Harry steeled himself, "I know we got into some fights last spring, but I don't even remember why. It was probably something stupid. So… friends?"

"That'll be the day" snorted Crabbe.

Draco looked down at something on the desk in front of him "Go away Potter." he said, sounding defeated, "Nothing is the same anymore." Draco pulled out a cigarette and lit it, without looking up at Harry.

Harry stood and looked at his former friend before turning and walking back out of the classroom.

*Meta*Meta*

"So who can tell me what the Luxor accords were?" chirped Umbridge in her gratingly high voice. Harry hunkered down, hoping not to be called on. Not that he didn't know the answer - it was right there in the book, but that woman annoyed him to the point he was certain that he would mouth off and get into trouble. He glanced at Hermione, who was seated next to him at their round table. She also sat hunched over, a hunted expression on her face.

And that was WHY he disliked Umbridge. BAD teachers he could deal with. This was DADA after all. But Hermione was usually so poised and confident, to see her like this was painful. She was way too bossy, but Hermione and Neville were the only students that would so much as talk to him, so that made her one of his best friends by default. Harry had tried talking to her a couple of times about the detention, but she had just brushed him off, saying it wasn't that big a deal.

"Yes, Simon?"

"The Luxor accord banned the use of the Unforgivables in 1783."

"Very good Simon. And Mr Potter, can you tell us what that means for Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Harry glanced down at the book open on the table in front of him. The paragraph that he was being asked to parrot back in this 'discussion' session was very clear "After the Luxor accords, the use of the unforgivables became extremely rare, so that the average citizen no longer needed to learn how to defend against them." Harry read straight from the book in a monotone. "But Professor Umbridge, That only applies to regular situations. The Death Eaters DO use the unforgivables."

"10 points from Ravenclaw. You-Know-Who was defeated long ago, and his followers are no threat to wizarding Britain."

"Then who was it that cast Crucio on me?" Harry demanded.

"Detention, Potter!" roared the pink toad.

Harry just jutted out his chin and glared back at the toad. _'Maybe now I'll find out what happened to Hermione.'_

*Meta*Meta*

Harry had class the rest of the day, so he had no chance to dwell on his upcoming detention with 'that horrible woman' (as Hermione referred to her). When evening rolled around, he grabbed a quick dinner and went up to the DADA classroom.

"Come to my office" Umbridge led Harry to the back of the classroom and into the office behind it. "Sit down Mr. Potter." Umbridge herself took a seat behind a dainty desk. It had several pieces of parchment on one corner, and otherwise was empty save for a number of chachkas. The office was remarkably empty as well, with paintings of cats hanging on the walls and a few more souvenirs on the sparsely filled shelves.

"Mr. Potter, I will not have you spreading fear and discontent in the student body with your wild rumors and stories."

"But.." began Harry, starting to rise from his seat.

"Sit back down, and do not interrupt while I am speaking, please. If there was any chance that a dark wizard was out attacking people, the Minister of Magic would have taken the appropriate measures." Dolores gave a him sickly sweet smile that looked very out of place on her toad face, "Can I have your word that you won't make any of these ridiculous assertions again?"

Harry paused, _'I can get out of detention! but..'_ "What, so you can claim I killed Cedric because I went crazy or something? I liked Cedric! He attacked me. I don't know if he was secretly a Death Eater, or under the Imperius, but the reason Cedric is dead is because of Voldemort!"

"Tut, tut, mister Potter" Umbridge shook her head in disappointment, "Now, I would like you to write 'I will not spread filthy lies' 1000 times."

"Oh, ok" Harry was relieved. it would be monotonous, but otherwise not too bad. He had been dreading something far worse. He pulled out a pen and took the proffered roll of parchment when Umbridge leaned forward, "Not with that pen, this one." She held opened a small pen case and handed him the contents.

Harry shrugged and began to write.

'I will not spread filthy lies'

'I will not spread filthy lies'

'I will not spread filthy lies'

His chest began to itch. He rubbed at it absently as he wrote. By the time he had reached fifty lines, the itch was maddening. "Um, Professor, may I be excused to go to the bathroom?"

"I think you can do better than that, Mr. Potter." She replied scornfully, "your potty break can wait until you have managed at least 200 lines."

As Harry wrote, the itching got worse and worse. He gritted his teeth and continued to write, to show the fat toad that he wasn't some slacker. His chest was burning by the time he reached 500 lines. He jumped up and raced to the bathroom. Once there, he pulled up his robe to see what was wrong.

Written in large letters across his chest was 'I will not spread filthy lies' in his own handwriting. it looked like he had been tattooed, or more likely, branded. "What the heck? What do I do?" Once he stopped writing, the pain went away, but the letters still itched abominably. And the the process of writing was getting more and more painful. Harry wasn't certain if you could handle 500 more lines. "I'll be damned before I let that toad win." He put his robe back on and stormed back into the DADA office. He dropped down into his chair started writing again, gritting his teeth against the pain.

It was almost midnight when Harry Potter staggered into the Ravenclaw Common-room. He was emotionally wrung out from inflicting pain on himself, and his chest itched so much that he walked hunched over, so that his robe wouldn't rub against it.

"Um, Hi." A small voice called out as he headed for the boys dorms. Hermione put down her book and got up from the chair by the fire. Other than her, the room empty, and all of the lights (except from the fire) had been turned off. She tentatively approached the Boy Who Itched. "Are you ok?"

Harry waved and plastered a fake smile on. "Yeah. I'm fine." As he started for the stairs, Hermione grabbed his sleeve, "St. Mungo's Gort-root ointment helps." Hermione said quickly, holding out a jar, "Here, I have some left."

Harry stopped, "DId that woman make you write lines?" asked Harry, "And did they appear elsewhere on your body?"

Hermione nodded and tapped her chest, blushing furiously. Harry didn't know what to say. He took the ointment. "Thanks." As he started up the stairs, he turned back to Hermione. "Thanks for waiting up for me."

"Just returning the favor."

Harry stood there for a moment, and then turned around and went back down stairs. "This.. This isn't ok. WE should do something." He sat back down in the easy chair.

"What can we do? She's a teacher." To Hermione, teachers were an absolute authority, not to be questioned, except on intellectual grounds.

"Maybe we could start a study group? I bet a lot of people are fed up with Umbridge. We never learned that much in DADA, but she's positively intent on making us UN-learn what little we do know! And with You-Know-Who - Voldemort - out there, we should learn how to cast defense spells."

Hermione flinched slightly as Harry said the name, "Don't bring him up - a lot of people don't believe that he's actually back, despite what Dumbledore said, and mentioning You-Know-Who will only alienate them." Hermione rubbed her chin, "But some of the Ravenclaws will show up to a Defense study session just because they want to actually learn something." Hermione paused to think the idea through. The idea of getting revenge on the Luddite Professor by learning forbidden knowledge appealed to her. "So what are we going to study?"

"I thought you could come with something."

"Me?" Hermione's voice rose, "I.. I "

"But you've already graduated from Beauxbatons, and your brilliant - smarter than any of the other Ravenclaws our year. Who else would do?"

"I've never done anything like this - I have never felt comfortable in front of so many people."

"But you hung out with Fleur, who's the center of attention wherever she goes."

"But that was FLEUR. I never had to deal with it!" Wailed Hermione.

"I'll help. Anything you need."

Hermione looked at Harry. "I… ok. But it's late - let me think about it and I'll let you know tomorrow morning if I can do it." Harry positively beamed. He leaned over and gave her a quick one armed shoulder hug

Hermione blushed so hard she almost glowed.

*Meta*Meta*

Harry was on tenterhooks all the following morning - this was the first project that Harry had really ever gotten into. And he wasn't certain why. It was a combination of wanting to get back at Umbridge and learning how to defend himself with a wand. Ever since last year, studying with Professor Loew, Harry had begun to feel that he could fend of an attacker better with his bare hands then with magic. But after the graveyard… Harry wasn't certain if that was enough.

He never wanted to feel that powerless again.

Harry was finishing up his eggs and toast when Hermione sat down next to him. "ok."

"Ok?"

"Yes, I'll do it" Hermione acknowledged, smiling wanly.

"Great!" Harry beamed at Hermione, "You're the best!" Other students at the Ravenclaw table watched in bemusement. "So, have you got a curriculum?"

Harry's enthusiasm was infectious, and soon Hermione was smiling back as she tucked a stray stand of hair back behind her ear, "Yeah, I was thinking we could research spell chains - it's a way of getting spells off faster. Apparently dualists often use them." _'Why won''t that hair stay put._' she brushed it back again compulsively.

Harry shrugged, "I've never heard of them."

"All the more reason to go over them." Hermione replied sagely. Maybe she COULD do this. Maybe if she was seen as the teacher, they would would respect her. "And I also took out a OWL DADA study guide, and we can work off of that."

"Uhm.." Terry leaned over tentatively, almost against his will, and asked, "What are you guys going on about?"

"Hermione is going to be running a Defense study group, to you know, catch up on material that we might need for our OWLs and such…"

Terry sat back and looked thoughtful, "Count me in. I'll talk to a few others and see who's interested. Where are you meeting?"

"We can grab one of the classrooms on the third floor - they never took down the expansion from hosting the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students last year." Hermione offered. Several other 'Claws who had been pretending not not to listen in nodded. At the same time, Luna finished her orange juice and walked off.

*Meta*Meta*

"Silencio" Harry cast.

"You suck, Potter" Simon replied.

"Shit."

"Language, Harry, just relax and try again. Flitwick commented as he walked by. They were in the Charms classroom, and all of the Ravenclaws were paired off and practicing the silencing charm. Simon had been paired (against his will) with Harry - the détente that the two boys had shared last year had faded, and Simon was back to sneering at Harry.

"Ok, you try." Harry steeled himself.

"Silencio" Simon cast. Nothing seemed to happen. "pst, doofus, say, something!" Simon hissed.

'I am not a doofus.' Harry replied, or tried to. No sound came out.

"Finite Incantatem. Good job, Simon. Harry, get a drink of water and relax. Jut jab out the wand at the same time as you pronounce the spell. That's it - together. " Flitwick watched Harry try again, this time successfully. '_Harry has made huge improvements since last year. Even with linear spells like this, he was only able to get them to go half the time. Now, having a spell fail is more the __exception__ than the rule.' _ "Very good. Practice a few more times, but it looks like you both have it."

Harry was having a hard time concentrating on the class. That evening was the defense study session. Even though Hermione was nominally leading the study group, he was still really nervous. He didn't want the group to fail. He didn't want HERMIONE to fail. _'If this doesn't work out, she's going to be so upset' _Hermione seemed a little… delicate that way. She wasn't used to failing. or being told that she was worthless.

"Potter! Say something so I can tell if my spell worked." Simon was exasperated. _'Why did Flitwick __assign__ me to work with Potter. I don't want to work with him, and he obviously doesn't want to have anything to do with me eithe_r.'

*Meta*Meta*

Later that evening, Hermione spoke to the group of a dozen 'Claws that showed up to the study group, "I want to mostly concentrate on preparing for the OWLs," She held up the 'Official Ministry of Magic Study Guide for OWL exams' that she was using as her syllabus, "but I also want to learn some practical dueling skills" She held up a second book - 'The IWC Dueling Manual, CLVII'. "I have made copies of chapter one of the Guide so that you can read up on the material, and next time we meet we can discuss anything that we don't understand. But for now, lets look at casting spell chains. That's a technique used by duelers where the end of one spell leads right into their next spell, so that there is no break in their spell casting. We can try that with Lumos and Wingardium Leviosa. Here, let me demonstrate."

For the next quarter hour, the students practiced seamlessly flowing from one spell to the next without slurring any of the wand motions or getting the words out of sync with the motions.

"It's not possible to get the first spell finished right before starting the second," complained Padma, "you end up producing a weak Lumos because the wand tip doesn't stop at the end of the spell."

"So pause for a fraction of a second before continuing on to the second," explained Terry. His spell chain was working very well. He had even started putting in some other spells, "The trick is finding spells that can flow one into the next. We should come up with a couple of good ones that we can memorize"

"Yeah, I guess. As long as the spells work together well," added Harry. "It doesn't matter how well you can cast a spell chain if it doesn't do anything useful." The spell chains reminded him a lot of Kumites the Professor Loew had taught him. And Sensei Loew had been careful to always remind Harry that the Kumites were just training, that as he became more advanced, that he would need to be able to flow like that with ANY move, and that the best way to to get to that point was to practice coming up with his own combination..

Hermione glanced at her watch. "Let's call it a day. We'll meet again on Thursday, and start on the real work".

"Uhm, that brings up the question - how often are we going to meet?" This was from one of the fourth years.

"I was thinking twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have a lot of material to cover." Hermione patted her books. Most of the fifth year 'Claws nodded in agreement, but the younger students looked skeptical.

*Meta*Meta*

After lunch the following day, Harry was sitting by the lake, his potions homework on his lap. Not that he was actually concentrating on that: Harry had his wand in hand, and his eyes glazed as he tried to think of spells that would work in a chain. And that would be effective in defense.

"Hey, Harry." The Boy Who Lived started, to find Neville sitting next to him. "Oh, good. You Ravenclaws have the same Potions homework that we do. Can you give me a hand with question two? I am completely blanking on on it. I am not even certain what Snape is asking."

"Sure. I have some time until my next class" The two boys got down to work. Working together, the two boys started to make some progress, which was good, since Harry had been having a hard time concentrating on Potions, and Neville, as always had no clue. It was really amazing to Harry how somebody as smart as Neville could be so bad at something as simple as Potions. While the class wasn't Harry's favorite, Neville at some basic level just didn't get it. Why switching directions when stirring made a difference, why some ingredients had to be heated, while others had to be kneaded in the hand. But Harry had the same sort of problem in Herbology, so they made a good team.

"But WHY does sniffing the Roomi Tubers before you drop them into the cauldron make a difference? They smell bad." whined Neville.

"Yes, but if you don't sniff them, the smell won't be as potent, and that's the key part of the Roomis. It's no different than your singing lullabies to the Cucurbitas, but not to the Rosmarinus Officious"

"But that makes sense - Rosemary plants don't LIKE lullabies! They are a hard rock sort of plant." Neville sighed and leaned back, rubbing his neck, "speaking of not making any sense, do you know that the last couple of days, Luna has been hanging out in our Common Room, draping herself over Michael Corner?"

"Are they going out?" Harry wasn't certain how he felt about that. Obviously Luna could do whatever she wanted, and he was fine with that, but on the other hand, it felt.. odd. Like having a door slammed in his face.

"I don't think so. Michael looks sort of uncomfortable with her, which is understandable - she's being weirder than usual. Last night, she was was literally laying along the top of the couch that Michael was sitting on. Like a cat, or something."

"That's Luna for you" Harry smiled in bemusement.

*Meta*Meta*

"Harry, are you ready for the study session?" Hermione asked as they sat at dinner. She had trouble sitting still, and kept picking up her glass of water and putting it back down.

"Hermione, it'll be fine. You're just leading a study group." Hermione was dressed in a formal robe and had her hair pulled back into a bun that was so tight that Harry was surprised not to hear it screaming. And she had carefully applied makeup that made her look several years older.

"I just want to make a good impression." she took a sip of water, "I've never been the leader of anything like this before." She took another sip.

"Why are you stressing out about it _now_, you already HAD one meeting."

"But that was just an orientation. Those don't count. Now, I have to teach something" Hermione took another sip of water.

Harry wolfed the last bit of his food and stood up. "Come on, lets go - you're not eating anything anyways, and if you keep drinking like that, you'll spend the whole time in the loo."

"Harry!" Hermione colored in embarrassment.

"Besides, the study group was my idea, so if it doesn't work out, you can just blame me." Harry lead the way.

Hermione jogged to catch up, and the pair power walked up to the classroom. "Harry - Thanks for supporting me. It means a lot." Hermione took a deep breath and walked in to the lions den.

The next 45 minutes were somewhat of a let down, at least for Harry. They just sat around and went over OWL prep. Several of the students from younger years snuck out early. The last fifteen minutes they spent working on spell chains.

"I think we're doing something wrong" Terry sighed.

Hermione agreed, "this is so frustrating. We need to ask somebody who actually knows how to cast these." Having to ask for help was a blow to Hermione's self esteem, but she wasn't too proud to admit that there were some things that she just couldn't do all by herself. Like sing a duet, or play Bridge.

"We could ask Flitwick - he's a former dualist." volunteered Harry.

"You're right. I just don't understand why our spells are coming out so weak." Hermione continued to pick at the problem in front of her as the rest of the 'Claws said their goodbyes and took their leave. Soon, it was only Harry and Hermione.

"Hermione - you won't solve this all tonight. Lets head back."

Hermione put her wand away , "Goodness! It's almost curfew - How did it get so late?"

Harry laughed, "When you get going on something, you're scary."

Hermione sent a mock-glare at Harry. As they turned to go, she grabbed Harry's arm. "You really are the best." as they walked back to the Common room, Hermione kept casting sidelong glances at Harry. Finally, as they were almost at the door, she grabbed his arm. "Uhm, Harry… you want to go to Hogsmead with me next weekend?"

Harry's heart lurched up into his throat, _'is she asking… who cares. She's nice, pretty, and cool.'_ "Yeah, I would love to." As the two teens stood there, looking at each other, smiling stupidly, Harry's mind whirled, _'Is she waiting for me to kiss her? Or would that be too forward? Am I supposed to open the door for her?' _Finally Hermione turned, and still smiling, lead the way into the Common Room.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Harry"

Harry forgot all about asking Flitwick about dueling techniques.

*Meta*Meta*

"Hem, Hem" Harry looked up - he and Hermione were sitting at dinner. Technically, they were at the Ravenclaw table, but in reality, they were in a world all their own. Harry glanced over at the head table. The Pink Toad was standing and making an announcement.

"In the past several weeks that I have been a teacher here, I have discovered that Hogwarts is a seething morass of chaos and improper behavior. To that end, I have spoken to the Minister of Magic, and he has appointed me High Inquisitor, in charge of rooting out malcontents and bringing calm and reason and order to this august institution." She took a sip of water and then continued in a self-satisfied tone, "It has come to my attention that there are some students involved in Illegal extracurricular clubs. All student organizations MUST be approved by me. In addition, there has been a high incidents of dangerous pranks in the hallways. None of this is acceptable: This is a school, not a madhouse. To that end, I will be organizing an Inquisitorial Squad that will verify that all students are conforming to all other Hogwarts rules. And any student club, organization or scheduled study group must be approved by me by monday morning or be disbanded. That is all. Have a pleasant evening" She smiled, nodded and sat back down.

Harry glanced at Dumbledore, to see what his reaction was, but the old gentlemen sat quietly, thin lipped, before turning back to his food.

"Is she talking about us?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. Did you check with her before organizing our group?"

Hermione looked askance at Harry, "Does Her Pinkness strike you as the sort that would tolerate any criticism, even as indirect as us studying materials that are not on her approved list?"

"Um, no. I think she's a control freak, actually."

"She's _some_ sort of freak" muttered Terry darkly, "The study group is over and done now, as are our chances of passing the DADA OWLS."

"Hey, don't give up yet. I'll see if I can think of something," Harry was an expert on rules breaking, so maybe he could find some way around this.

"You may be willing to break the rules, but how many students are going to be willing to risk a detention?" Padma broke in, giving Harry an angry look. But she was usually angry with Harry. He had long ago given on trying to figure out why. "And for what? Maybe the OWLs have been revised to reflect the new curriculum - the Study Guide Hermione is using is from last year."

"Do really think so?" Hermione asked, hopefully.

"Who cares?" interrupted Harry, "the point isn't to pass some stupid test. The point is to be able to defend yourself if You-Know-Who shows up." Harry spoke patiently, but he kept his voice low, so that it wouldn't carry far.

Padma looked away. Terry opened his mouth, and then closed without saying anything. He just shook his head.

"I know you think I'm full of shit. but what if you're wrong?" Harry continued, "What if I'm NOT lying? And a bunch of Death Eaters show up at your door? Then what? Can you afford to take the risk? It could be your life on the line."

Padma stood up, pulling Terry after her, and walked away before Harry could say any more.

Harry sighed, "Well, I guess there's no point in asking Flitwick about dueling"

Hermione silently wrapped her arms around Harry.

*Meta*Meta*

That night, Harry had another nightmare. He saw himself walking around a balding, middle-aged man who was cowering on the floor of what looked like a suburban living room. Several masked Death Eaters stood around the edges, "Saul Neeper." The hissing voice dripped disdain, "You came from a long, distinguished line. Your blood was as pure as they come, yet here you are, married to a muggle. Your children are muggles, and you work as an accountant. You have completely abandoned, no you have BETRAYED the magical world" The circling stopped, and now he pointed his - Harry's - wand at at the trembling man, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I did nothing wrong! I haven't violated the Statutes of Secrecy!" Saul managed to squeak before clamping tight his chinless jaw so that his teeth wouldn't chatter.

"So you haven't violated the Statutes of Secrecy" mocked the hissing voice. "CRUCIO!" Saul Neeper writhed in pain. "Finish him off, and dump the body where it won't be found." He turned and walked away.

"Should we leave the Dark Mark, your lordship?" asked one of the Death Eaters.

"No… Not yet."


	4. Chapter 3

Authors note:

Several people have asked what is going on with Luna (and Harry). Basically, Luna is pissed that Harry blew her off all summer. She's too immature to see things from Harry's perspective and realize that he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and not able to function properly.

So she decided to 'punish' him by pretending she doesn't know him (social skills are not her strong suite)

Once back in school, having survived the summer, Harry feels better. He realizes on some level that Luna is upset with him, but he has no idea why, and he's too much of a wuss to talk to her about it. His ego is still a little delicate and he can't take being told that he screwed up somehow.

Yes, they are both acting stupid.

**START**

"So, where do you want to go?" Asked Harry as they walked down the hill to Hogsmead. It was the Saturday after Umbridge's pronouncement, the one that killed their study group, so both Hermione and Harry were feeling rather down, but Harry figured that going to Hogsmead like they had planned anyways might cheer them up.

"Well, we could go to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shoppe - It's supposed to be the place to go." Volunteered Hermione.

Harry blanched. "Have you ever been to the Tea Shoppe? It's the most horribly kitsch place."

Hermione frowned, "well, here do YOU want to go?" Her self confidence was a little delicate right now, and Harry's incredulous tone as he shot her idea down hadn't helped any.

"Well, we could go to Tomes and Scrolls."

"A book store? For a date?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"Well, why not? We'll both enjoy going there. And we can talk about whatever we see there."

"I guess…" Hermione was ambivalent. On the one hand, book stores were always fun. But it felt wrong. What would Fleur say if she found out that Hermione was going out on a date to a bookstore. She would laugh her head off. Just like all the other girls she had met. but.. "As long as we have something we can talk about, I guess the location doesn't matter" She smiled up at Harry.

The weather was still warm, so they strolled slowly down the hill, holding hands. "You know, the Defense group might be done, but that's no reason that students can't study on their own."

"But where would we study? I bet that 'that woman' will find some way to punish those that skirt her decrees." Hermione's voice dripped venom when she said 'that woman'. "And I'm certain that word will get out if we study in the common room."

"The Weasley twins mentioned that they knew some secret places around Hogwarts, and they hate Umbridge with a passion."

"Those lunatics? Can you trust anything that they say?" Hermione was skeptical. Those were NOT proper students. There was a good chance that they would end up in jail. Or worse, unemployed.

"I lived with the Weasleys over the summer, remember? They are not as bad as they pretend to be."

"Hmm."

The little bell jangled as they stepped into the book store. The shopkeeper looked up morosely from the newspaper that he as reading, but didn't say anything. "Let's see if they have any journals" Hermione bounded away, and was soon leafing through 'Proceedings of British Council of Thaumaturges'.

Harry stood and read over her shoulder for a few minutes. "Uhm, Hermione, how about we look for something a little lighter?" _'Like something that I can actually understand'._

After several tries (Hermione didn't like light fiction, Harry refused to read study guides), they ended up in the humor section, flipping through books of comic strips. "Oh, wow! Wizarding comics are SO much better than the muggle ones." Harry wasn't certain how he had managed to miss these. Seeing the characters actually carry out their hijinks instead of just having to imagine it gave the comedy an extra effect. They ended up giggling over some cartoonist neither one had heard of before, and read nearly the whole book.

"Lets get this." Harry volunteered.

"I don't know.." Hermione wasn't certain that she wanted something like that in her room. It just wasn't PROPER. But the biting humor was very funny. "It's expensive, and we've already read most of it."

"That's ok" Harry took the book, "I'll buy it for you." he took the book up to the counter, where the shopkeeper was still reading at the paper.

He put the Daily Prophet away with a laden sigh, "Sorry I was a little distracted when you two came in. I just found out that an old classmate had passed away. We used to be really good friends, but I lost track of him after Hogwarts. turns out he was living as a muggle. I just read that he had a heart attack."

Harry looked up at the shopkeeper. He looked to be no more than 40. Wizards rarely had heart attacks, especially that young.. "Uh, what was his name?" Harry asked with trepidation. He wasn't certain why, but he had a really bad feeling about this.

"Saul. Saul Neeper."

Harry stood, frozen, as the man rang up his purchase, and he paid automatically, not even counting his change. "Harry? Are you ok?" Hermione took his elbow and lead him off to one side of the path.

" I think… that that man - Saul Neeper - was murdered by You Know Who."

Hermione looked worriedly at Harry, "Are you feeling ok?"

"I saw it. Or.. I dreamed it, last night."

Hermione frowned, "I don't know. Why would you be dreaming something like that?"

"I don't know, but I did!" Harry replied. Now it was his turn to be defensive. Nobody ever believed him. "I'm not making this up! Why would I?"

"I don't think you are," Hermione soothed, "But you know how hard it is to remember dreams. If you had a bad nightmare last night, your brain could have grabbed the jumbled, half remembered bits of it and mixed them with what you just heard. It's called concatenation, and it happens all the time with traumatic memories."

"I.. Maybe you're right. But it felt like I really dreamed it."

"You did dream it. Or at least something like it. It's just the details that your brain couldn't remember, so it filled in with similar sounding names."

Harry smiled, "You're really smart. What would I do without you?"

"Get all stressed out over nothing? Maybe go interrupt Dumbledore's staff meeting to tell him the news?" Hermione teased.

Harry laughed and took her hand. "Come on, lets see about getting some butterbeers!"

*Meta*Meta*

"So, how is Harry handling this year?" Dumbledore turned to Flitwick. the staff meeting was winding down, and the professors were chatting before heading out of the meeting room. For once, Dumbledore had used a regular sized room, with space for a large table. Possibly because Dolores Umbridge was the sort to take offense at the slightest perceived slight, and pretty much everything about the school offended her - it was filled with children, after all.

"He's holding up surprisingly well, but he has become more socially isolated, as many of the students don't know what to make of him, between all the rumors going around about what happened last year. I must say, is there anything you can do to get the Prophet to stop spreading such inflammatory slander? It's almost an invitation to a lynching!"

"I know, I know," whispered Dumbledore, casting a sideways glance at Dolores, who was talking to (or down to) Sybil Trelawney, "I have spoken to them on several occasions, but they keep claiming freedom of the press, and they do not care that the target of their slander is a child."

Flitwick nodded, "I guess the best we can do is set a good example for the students - by carrying on as if Harry and everything about his is completely normal. I just wish that there was something more active that we could do to make this go away/" Flitwick also glanced at Umbridge as he said that.

"You and me both" Dumbledore patted the shorter professor on the shoulder as he exited for his office.

*Meta*Meta*

"Thank you for the butterbeers" Hermione smiled up at Harry. They were sitting at a table in Rosmerta's pub, It was very cozy, except that Harry had taken a table a little too close to the front door for Hermione's liking - students kept walking by them. "You have been a perfect gentleman."

"It's the least I could do for my lady." Harry bowed as best he could while seated. Hermione blushed.

"Does that mean that we're officially dating?" she asked.

Harry paused, and answered tentatively, "If you don't mind?"

"Don't mind? You are the nicest person I have met at either school." Hermione gushed, _'you even ignored __Fleur__ to talk to me'_, "you always so considerate, and you support my ideas" '_and ask me for help.'_ She reached across and took Harry's hands, and the two sat staring at each other with happy smiles on their faces.

"Oh, hello Harry" came a familiar female voice, "can we steal one your chairs?" Luna asked. She gestured at Collin Creevy, so Harry would know who 'we' were.

"Um, ok." Harry watched in bemusement as Luna pulled their spare chair over to a table right in the middle of the room. She then held it out for Collin to sit down on, before taking her own seat. '_Collin? Really?'_

Hermione watched the show with a scowl, "Maybe we should go, Harry."

"Yeah." As two students made their way out of the Three Broomsticks, the tension that Harry hadn't even noticed until that moment eased away, and they were soon chatting again, this time about Defense. Hermione was overflowing with theories that she wanted to test, and Harry was coming to understand that this was Hermione's natural rest state.

"Hey - I think that's Fred" Harry pointed to the Owl Post building. One of the twins was sitting on a wooden box that was longer than he was tall.

"How can you tell which twin is which?"

"It's something I learned from Ron over the summer - pick a name and stick with it. I just call whichever twin I see first Fred." Harry hurried over to the twin, with a skeptical and slightly worried Hermione in tow. She wasn't certain that it was safe to be associating with known malefactors. Not out of fear of the twins pranks - Harry had reassured her on that account, but more of a 'guilt by association' sort of thing.

"Hey, Fred, where's George?" Harry asked by way of greeting.

"In the box" Fred replied, as he casually leaned back against the wall and stretched out his legs.

"Oh, ok. I got a question for you.." Harry began when Hermione interrupted "Why do you have your brother locked up in a box?"

"Because he was bad. He said that he was handsomer than me."

"Than I" corrected Harry.

"Than I" agreed Fred.

"But you're twins!"

"Exactly" agreed Fred. Before he could say anything further, Hermione interrupted again "But that's no reason to throw him in a box!" Hermione was starting to hyperventilate. She knew this was a bad idea. She started looking around for an authority figure to reprimand the Weasley, before her standing next to him made her into accessory to something.

"Hey, George, I was only able to find 50 feet of rope, but I think that... oh, hello there." The other twin said as he came around the corner. "What are you two doing here?"

"Hello, Other Fred. We're here on a date!" Harry said proudly. Hermione's scowl at being played melted away at Harry's exuberant statement.

"Good for you. I wish Ronnie-kins would follow your good example. Getting laid would do him a world of good."

"No! No!" Harry waved his hands back in forth in panic as he glanced around to see if anybody was in earshot.

"How DARE you!" roared Hermione. "What made you assume that I was THAT sort of woman!"

"It's a logical assumption" said Fred One, "Given how many 'French Letters' we have sold to our classmates." finished the Other Fred.

"Well! Well, maybe you Gryffindors leap into such things on the first date! But not.. I would NEVER..." Hermione was turning purple.

"Would you like one?" asked the seated Fred. The standing one pulled a box out of his robes. "two sickles each. Guaranteed not to be a joke."

"SHH!" hissed Harry. "And put those away! That's not what we are here for. We are looking for someplace where we can study without interruption"

The two Freds looked at each other, "I thought you said you weren't into that yet?" Said one. The other continued, "The shrieking shack used to be really popular for that sort of thing. It even has a bed." the other nodded, "That's how it got the name 'Shrieking shack', after all. But that was before they found the dead body there."

Hermione started to purple again as she realized what the twins were insinuating. "No. Remember Umbridge's decree against non-sanctioned clubs? That was to stop our Defense Study group. So now Harry and I are looking for a place that we can study on our own." She managed to force out through her clenched teeth.

"Well, maybe you DO want the Shrieking shack. Nobody has wanted to go there for over a year."

The other twin looked more thoughtful, "What are you studying, exactly?"

"Mostly OWL prep, but we're also learning spell chains and other dueling techniques." Hermione replied.

"Well, anything to tweak the nose of our dear Dolores" said Fred, pulling out a sheet of parchment and drawing a sketch.

"If you get serious about the dueling, call us - we wouldn't mind getting some practice in, now that You-Know-Who is back."

"Wait, you believe me?" asked an incredulous Harry.

"Of course. Dumbledore vouched for you" said Fred handing over a map.

"And just because something sounds unlikely doesn't make it untrue. Faking people out is our stock in trade." finished the second before pointing to the map, "That's Hogwarts, and that's the Whomping Willow. If you touch it right there, on that root, it will freeze and you can get into a secret passage nestled right here that lets out into the Shrieking Shack."

"That will be 10 sickles, for information provided."

"Wait.. What?" Harry looked confused, "I thought you were helping us because you didn't like Umbridge."

"That's true. But business is business."

*Meta*Meta*

As Harry and Hermione made their way back into the castle, their way was blocked by Draco lecturing Neville. "And you better shape up, FatBottom. You don't show me the proper respect, and the Inquisition Squad might have to pay you a visit." Draco leaned in menacingly. Or it would have been menacing, if he was taller. Neville was paying more attention to Crabbe than to Draco.

"So, what, you're going to abuse your position to harass innocent students?" asked Neville.

"No, but I bet you got some porn up in your trunk. That's against school rules" Crabbe added.

Hermione grabbed Harry's arm, and whispered, "Don't get involved - They aren't going to do anything to Neville." Harry realized that he had involuntarily taken a step forward.

Seeing Harry, Neville just rolled his eyes at Draco,"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind" and walked off to join the two. "Draco's been even more of an ass than usual, since he got named as a squad leader for one of the Inquisition squads."

"I think something's bothering him - I tried to talk to him a few days ago,and he acted like he was in some sort of trouble."

"Well, good for him!" added Hermione, "I can't believe that he would talk to Neville like that."

"Believe. Draco's always been like that, except before he didn't have the authority to back it up."

"No.. Something's changed:" Harry defended his sometime friend.

"How about the fact that You-Know-Who is back, and Draco's dad is a Death Eater? I bet Draco got an earful for hanging out with 'The-Boy-Who-Lived'."

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that" Harry considered, "Hey, Nev, you want to join Hermione and me in studying Defense?"

"I'll think about it. I want to see how this Inquisition Squad thing shakes out first."

*Meta*Meta*

Harry and Hermione didn't waste any time - that same evening, they made their way to the Shrieking Shack. It took them several tries to figure out how to press the root without getting thumped by the Willow (The twins hadn't bothered to give them any tips on that - either because of a simple oversight, or because they thought it would be funny to have them get whacked).

"Ok, I'll start the spell chain, and you see how long you can defend" They were squared off about 20 feet apart - the length of the shack, and Hermione had her best spell chain ready to go.

As she started casting, Harry began casting protego. He had to recast the shield spell a couple of times, but otherwise, the spell chain had no effect - the spells were weaker, and easy to deflect.

"I want to try something. You cast at me, and I will counter attack." Harry said. He had put some thought into this. '_This isn't __about__ winning a dual, it's about defeating your __opponent__'._

As Hermione began casting jinxes, Harry started a spell chain - it was all protegos at different angles mixed with a few Lumos. The spells came out weak, but Harry was casting them at angles and step off the line of fire with each one, so that instead of stopping Hermione's spells, they just deflected them off to the side. They rarely lasted for more than one hit. At the same time, he steadily advanced on her.

Hermione began to panic. Her spells were bouncing off all over the place, and the periodic flashes of light from Harry were disorienting. She tried to back away, but lost track of where she was going. She glanced off to one side to see if the way was clear. Her attention was pulled back to the front as Harry twisted the wand out of her hand. Hermione found herself inches away from Harry. The two teens stood like that.

Harry was on an emotional high - something he had come up with actually worked. He looked at Hermione, inches away, '_Lets see if this works as well.' _Harry leaned in and kissed a rather surprised Hermione.

*Meta*Meta*

The following morning, Harry watched in bemusement as Luna and Collin sat together at the Gryffindor table. "Harry" Hermione scowled, Harry looked back to his girlfriend, "Are you certain we want other people to come practice? I'm not just asking because of you know.." she blushed slightly, "But the more people that are involved, the more official it is , and the higher the chance that somebody will let something drop.

"Yeah, I know. but I don't want Neville or Ron or " Harry paused. He was smart enough not to say 'or Luna', but that was the third name that came to mind. "or anybody I know to get hurt if they... if they get into a bad situation." Harry didn't want to say the words 'Death Eaters'. Somebody could be listening in, even though the young couple had a clear area around them - they had taken seats as far from the other Ravenclaws as they could, and nobody had wanted to intrude. Especially since the saccharine level was extremely high, with the two teens leaning in close.

"Hmm. I guess we can find some other place for.. ah extracurriculars" Hermione blushed again. "But what you did with the spell chain was pretty impressive. We should see if that works again."

"Sounds good to me. But we'll need some privacy."

Hermione smacked Harry's arm and blushed again, "No, you goof. I meant about how you managed to shrug off some of my best spells without slowing down."

"Oh that - I just didn't bother trying to maintain my protego – that's what the spell chain was for: I cast them just strong enough to deflect a spell, and then cast another. It's just like in Martial arts - unless you are caught flat footed, you don't actually block an attack - you just guide it past you as you step in to retaliate."

Hermione nodded. "We need to work on that. I'll see if I can come up with some way of countering it."

Harry sighed. With Hermione, everything was competition

*Meta*Meta*

"Now, class, please turn to page 23. We will take turns reading. If anybody does not understand a section, please raise your hand." Dolores Umbridge said sweetly. Harry rolled his eyes. He knew what happened to students foolish enough to question the 'Gospel of Umbridge' (™). Students took turns reading, and nobody had any questions.

Harry glanced at Hermione who was sitting next to him at the round, doily covered table. He wished there was some way to communicate, to reduce the boredom, but the last person to try passing notes was promptly caught sentenced to detention. It just wasn't worth it.

'_This blows.'_ Harry waited patiently for the period to end.

*Meta*Meta*

"Ok, you all. This year, you're goin' to have a real treat in Care of Magical creatures" rumbled Hagrid. Harry rolled his eyes. Hagrid said that same thing every year, usually in reference to some potentially lethal creature that he had somehow managed to smuggle into Hogwarts (or possibly England - Harry was pretty certain that the dragon that had ended up burning down Hagrid's hut first year was not legal to own in England or any other civilized country.)

"This year, we're goin' ta learn about th' care an' feeding of Thestrals." Hagrid lead the way to the coral behind his hut and pointed to a rotting pegasus standing quietly munching the grass. Harry's eyes got big _'Oh, that's what I saw pulling__ the carriages.'_

"Um, Professor Hagrid?" asked Padma, "There's nothing there."

"Arh!" Hagrid groaned and slapped a huge paw into the side of his face, " I forgot that you wouldn't be able see them! Only people who have seen death can see a Thestral."

"Oh god," groaned Terry. He leaned over to Simon, whispering quietly, "I bet he's going to take us to a morgue." Harry was standing in front of them, and he was hard pressed to suppress a laugh.

"Ok, Ok! I've thought of something," mumbled Hagrid, "I'll ask Dumbledore for permission to take yer on a field trip to the London Morgue. Tha'll fix you right up!"

Terry snorted, "Told you you so."

'_Oh, this is shaping up to be another __wonderful__ year of Hagrid Theater' _Harry smiled. The smile froze on Harry's face. '_So that's what Luna meant.'_ pieces snicked together in Harry's head and the smile slipped off _'I hadn't realized that she had actually seen her mother die.. Poor girl._'

*Meta*Meta*

As Harry walked back from Care of Magical Animals, he heard Crabbe laughing, the way he did when somebody else was suffering. _'Those jerks aren't my problem.'_ Harry kept walking.

"I'm head of an Inquisition squad now, Creevy, so I can ask whatever I want. And if you don't answer…" Collin muttered something, to which Draco replied, "Well, We'll find out when we see what's under your mattress." As he rounded a small copse of trees, Harry could see Draco and Crabbe standing around a smaller boy - Collin Creevy. Without knowing quite why, Harry found himself heading towards them.

"Hey, Draco. What are you up to now?"

"None of your business, Potter. Creevy and us were having a conversation" replied Crabbe. He shifted his stance, so that Collin didn't have any room to slip past him. Harry looked at his former friends, and then at the face of the young Gryffindor. Collin was trying to maintain a stiff upper lip, but both boys were larger than him, and he looked scared. Harry noticed something on the grass next to him - Collin's Camera. He picked it up and pointed it at the boys.

'click'

"Say cheese!" The Pure-blood wizards looked confused at the idiom. Harry held up the camera. "I'm taking this to lost and found. If you do anything to Collin, I bet he can get this photo published. He's really good at that. I wonder what caption the Daily Prophet will put on it? Will it make your parents proud?"

The two Slithering paled, "We ain't doing anything. We're just talking."

"You keep your mudblood loving ways out of this" added Draco.

Harry shrugged, and motioned for Draco to bring it on.

Draco snorted, "Don't be childish, Potter" and walked off, followed by the lumbering behemoth that was Crabbe.

"Thanks, Harry" Collin said, not looking at his savior.

"This had nothing to do with you," Harry handed Collin his camera back, "I just hate bullies".

*Meta*Meta*

After lunch, Harry spotted Luna peering at something in the grass. She was pushing the blades of grass apart and peering at their bases.

Harry made his way over to the rather spacey girl, "Um, hi, Luna" .

Luna turned to look at Harry, "Why, hello, Harold" Harry was taken aback slightly, both by Luna's formal address as well as the fact that she actually replied. This was the first time this year that she had acknowledged his existence. He wanted to say something. "Um, you know about Collin.." But he was fairly certain that this wasn't it.

"Yes?" Luna asked softly.

"You do know that you're not fooling anybody. Half the school knows that he's gay." Harry continued, not certain why he felt it necessary to bring this up.

Luna gave a Harry a hard, flat look, "just like half the school knows that you're a psycho killer?" But just like a summer storm, she her glare melted away, "But it's ok - anything that helps you sleep at night" she patted his arm and walked off.

*Meta*Meta*

In next couple of days, Harry modified his routine. In addition to the martial arts training before breakfast, and classes during the day, he added Defense training in the afternoon and make-out sessions in the evening.

"Ok, let's wind it up." Hermione said, lowering her wand. Neville had started joining them for the defense practice, and it was a tight squeeze in the shack with three people, "I think we're making good progress"

"I just wish we could bring in more people" Neville grabbed a bottle of water. "I think Ron would really enjoy this."

Harry snorted, "get him to show up for our morning sparring sessions and I'll believe that."

"It's just as well - we couldn't fit more people in" Hermione didn't say it, but she preferred the sessions back when it was just Harry and her - Neville could take care of himself.

"Actually, we could. The Weasley twins know how to cast the space expanding charms, and I bet they would be willing to cast them if we invited them to join us for. We're not really doing OWL work most of the time."

"I KNOW!" sighed Hermione. "I still don't see why we have to spend so much time on the drills - the written part of the exam is worth 75%."

"It's not the exam I'm worrying about" Harry had had another nightmare last night. This time of a muggle being tortured. He hadn't told Hermione about it - she would probably explain it away as his guilt over Cedric. But it had seemed so real.

"Um, guys? I'll just leave you to your lovers quarrel," Neville said with a waive as he headed for the door.

"It's not a quarrel!" replied an exasperated Hermione.

Neville smirked, "given how saccharine the two of you act most of the time, I think this counts, for you guys."

"Thank you? I guess?" Harry replied, not certain if they had been insulted or complimented.

*Meta*Meta*

It was much later that evening when Harry and Hermione headed back to Hogwarts - after Neville had left, they decided to take a walk out to the lake. As they made their way to the Ravenclaw dorms, they were surprised by the large number of students milling about.

"Hey, what's going on?" Harry asked a cluster of third year Slytherin boys laughing about something.

"Somebody placed a portable swamp in front of Umbridge's office." Said one, barley restraining his laughter.

"Yeah, and they disillusioned it, so that she walked right into it! You should have seen her! She was covered in mud up to her chest!"

"Oh, man I don't know who did it, but they are going to be in SO much trouble!"

"But how could they get a portable swamp into the school? Those come in a box as big as a coffin, and you can't cast shrinking spells on it without busting it."

"It's got to be Weasleys. Who else could it be?" The debate moved to possible culprits.

"Harry." Hermione pulled Harry away, to a quiet cross corridor. But whatever she had to say was interrupted by a prefect coming along, calling out "All students are to return to their common rooms immediately. All evening activities are canceled until further notice." He saw the cluster of students, "Go on. Head to your common room. Any student not in their common room by 9pm will serve detention."

The two Ravenclaws looked at each other and quickly made their way to the tower.

*Meta*Meta*

"So what's going on?"

"I have no idea," the Ravenclaws had been confined to their common room until the following morning. Rumor was running rampant, and breakfast was a noisy affair as everybody was talking to everybody else.

"Hem! hem!" the noise died away as the pink toad waddled up to the the middle of the room. "We have a crisis in this school! Hooligans are running wild in the halls, the students are disrespectful and inattentive. Therefore, with the Minister of Magic's blessing, I am assuming full authority until we have cleared away the rot." She scowled around the room. Her usual artificial cheer was gone, replaced by barely concealed fury. Harry glanced up at the head table - Dumbledore was notably absent, and several of the teachers were scowling at the High Inquisitor's back. "All extra curricular activities will be suspended until further notice. No student will be out of their dorms except to attend class. The Inquisition squads will be investigating exactly WHERE each student was last night after dinner. That is all!" Umbridge turned around and stormed off.

"Oh, this is not good." Harry whispered, "we can't account for where we were, not without explaining about the Defense practice."

"We'll just say that we were spending a romantic evening together. Alone" Hermione replied half heartedly. She hated lying, especially to teachers.

"And what about Neville? Are we going to include him in our 'romantic evening'?"

"What? NO!" Hermione sighed, "I guess we can't let him hang on his own. We'll have to get together and concoct an alibi." Apparently they were not alone in their worries - numerous whispered conversations were taking place, and several students were heading to the other houses' tables.

"All students will return to their tables. there will be no congregating until after the crisis has passed!"

After that announcement, the whole of the great hall fell into a funereal silence.

Harry whispered, "I'll see Neville in Herbology, after lunch,

*Meta*Meta*

It was during first period Potions that the Inquisitorial squad made it's appearance.

"Professor Snape, we have an order from Head Inquisitor Umbridge to question the students present about their activities last night."

"Be quick about it." Snape scowled, "I have a class to teach here."

"Uh, yes, sir, professor!" Draco deflated. Snape had that effect even on people who thought he was their best friend. Draco turned to the two boys with him - one was Crabbe, the other was an equally large fourth year Hufflepuff.

"Ok, you two, stand there, and keep the others out of my hair." He turned to Ernie "where were you last night after dinner?"

"I went to bed early. I always go to bed early" replied the Hufflepuff.

"That early? Nobody does that!" Draco scoffed. "If you don't tell me, I will have your trunk searched."

"Like whoever is the culprit is going to be stupid enough to hide incriminating evidence in their own trunk!" called out Terry.

"Yeah, I bet they would hide it in somebody else's trunk. Somebody that they don't like!" added Simon.

"Quiet! I am asking the questions!' replied Draco, sweating intensely. interrogating people was harder than he had expected. He glanced to see what Prof. Snape's response would be, but Severas was taking the opportunity to grade some second year essays, and appeared oblivious to everything transpiring in his classroom. Which is why when Crabbe yelled out in pain and started hopping on one foot, Draco had to deal with it alone. "Who did that? Professor, somebody cast a hot foot on Vincent."

"When you have determined who the perpetrator is, I will assign them a detention" replied Snape without looking up, his greasy hair shielding his face from view.

"Ok, then - hey, watch out! " Draco skipped back as Harry inconspicuously flung a ladle full of potion at Draco's leg.

"Oh, sorry, you bumped my elbow as I was stirring." Harry replied, "Don't worry, it's harmless."

"It's not harmless! It stinks like vomit!" shrieked Draco. "You assaulted a member of the Inquisition Squad, and I will see you punished for that! Wait until.." Draco had lost his usual composure wand was starting to yell.

"Detention, Potter. See me after class." Snape interrupted, without looking up.

Draco stopped mid rant, not certain what to say next.

"Maybe you can conduct these interviews this evening, when you won't be interrupting class?" Asked Snape pointedly, "And you might want to change your robes in the interim - Potter was not completely correct when he said that potion was harmless. The smell will permeate your skin if you don't take care of it."

*Meta*Meta*

Fortunately, the Inquisitorial squad's heavy handed ways did not enjoy any more success anywhere else either. By the time lunch rolled around, the word was that they had gotten into two jinxing contests and a fist fight, and had managed to accomplish absolutely zero, "Of course, that isn't stopping Umbridge" Neville pointed to the woman in question, "look at that fat toad. She looks pleased with herself" He was whispering, As were the other students at the Ravenclaw table. Nobody wanted to draw the attention of the High Inquisitor.

"We still need an alibi for last night," whispered Hermione.

"I was thinking about that. I talked to Ron, and he's ready to swear that he saw you two up on the Astronomy tower when he was making his rounds last night. And I'll just claim that I was in the greenhouse taking care of the Nightshade."

"That's believable enough" started Harry.

"No, it's not, I mean it is, but I don't want a reputation as a scarlet woman!" fumed Hermione.

"A lot of couples go up to the Astronomy tower. Even some Third years do. It's not like you were caught in the second floor broom cupboard or something." Neville replied.

"We weren't 'caught' anywhere! We're fabricating all this to avoid a detention. That is all. There is NO veracity to it!" Hermione insisted. Out of the corner of her eye, she says Harry try to restrain a smirk, and blushed crimson.

Neville looked between the two teens "Oookay. I don't think I want to know what that's all about. I'm going to go back to the Gryff's table now, and let you two have your privacy."

"Hey" Hermione punched Neville in the arm.

He just smiled and waved.

*Meta*Meta*

"I know why Snape assigns so many detentions - he needs slave labor to clean all the spills." Harry said as he slid into breakfast the following morning. The Ravenclaw table was half empty, as the many students had already left for class.

"He could just scourgify the classroom" Andrew replied.

"Have you ever seen the room after the Gryffindor Potions class? The stuff that spews out of Longbottom's cauldron is magically active - you scorgify that and it might come after you and eat your face," Terry scoffed.

"Yeah, Neville's area was a disaster - the floor was purple and throbbing. Snape had me sand it down" Harry shuddered. "Where's Hermione?" Harry realized that his girlfriend was not at the table.

"Detention."

"What? When?"

"The Inquisitorial squad visited the Advanced Arithromancy Seminar. Not certain how it happened, but apparently it turned into a free for all. Two members of the Inquisitorial squad had to go to Madam Pomfrey to have their wands removed from their noses. The whole class ended up with an early morning detention with Um-bitch" Anthony scowled. Before he could say anything else, Padma stumbled into the great hall.

"Mumphmum! Fneet Nktum!" she mumbled, pointing at her mouth.

Terry whipped out his wand "Finite Incantatem"

"Thank you! That arsehole Montague cornered me and started asking me 'what do you do with your evenings?' and made suggestive comments. When I refused to answer, he cast the mumbling spell on me!"

"5 points from Ravenclaw for using spells between classes" Draco sang out as he approached the Ravenclaw table.

"You're not a prefect. You can't take away points."

"Actually, the High Inquisitor has just assigned that responsibility to the Inquisitorial squads, to help maintain discipline." He smirked.

Harry looked up at the head table '_Dumbledore__ won't allow this will he?' _but the Headmaster was again absent from the head table.

"Where is Dumbledore?" he whispered to Terry.

"Nobody's seen him since last thursday." Terry glanced up at Draco, who was still lording it over the Ravenclaws, telling them of his power over their lives. "We need to do something about this."

"I don't know what we CAN do." Harry sighed, "They have the authorities on their side."

"Well, we can at least come up with strategies to avoid getting picked on. Maybe some peaceful resistance stuff, like Gandhi."

"Um, I'm bollocks at the whole passive resistance stuff." Harry's voice grew louder, "I'll just blast the balls off of anybody that tries that shit on me." He looked up, locking eyes with Draco, "Or maybe just break their arm."

Draco noticeability paled, "5 points from Ravenclaw for making threats." Harry continued to stare at the Slytherin. Draco pivoted and walked off, trying to maintain his dignity.

"You and Hermione are still practicing Defense, right?" asked Padma, "I want in."

Terry nodded, "Yeah, if you two are up for it, I can pass the word. I think there are a handful more that would like to practice defense."

"Yeah, it makes sense," bobbed Andrew.

*Meta*Meta*

"Hey, how are you doing?" Harry gave Hermione a quick hug as he joined her on the shore of the lake for a picnic lunch.

"Tired, I had to get up 5 am this morning so that the whole AAS could stand in Umbridge's room for an HOUR, doing nothing. Anybody who so much as twitched had to stay extra."

"I heard." Harry sighed as he sat down against a tree, " a couple of people have approached me about joining our Defense session. I know you don't want a lot of people there but I felt bad saying no to all of them."

Hermione scowled, "with the way things are going, this school is going to turn into the Balkans - this faction fighting that faction. Let anybody who wants to come join us - push comes to shove, I want to have a faction of my own to back me up."

"You really think it will come to that?" Harry asked, surprised.

"I don't know. Maybe all this will die down over winter break." Hermione leaned back against Harry's shoulder, "But if I learned one thing from hanging out with Fleur, it's that in a tough situation, you need minions."

"Did something like this happen at Beauxbatons?" Harry asked, incredulous.

"No. It was just Fleur. For her, dealing with boys - whether ones she wanted to avoid, or those whose attention she sought - involved many well orchestrated actions - this person had to be overheard saying such and such to her, who then had to act shocked and run to tell this other person, but only when this boy was present, etc. etc." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I thought you liked Fleur."

"I.. I do. It's just.. maybe it's something in the British air that is affecting my thinking, but it all seems so silly now."

"Well, at least you can put those tactical skills to good use."

Hermione turned part way around to give a mock glare at Harry, "What, you don't think I need those skills to attract the right boy."

Harry leaned forward and kissed her, "No".

It was several minutes before conversation resumed.

*Meta*Meta*

The first meeting of the Defense Association, as Harry decided to name their 'illegal club activity' was in the same third floor classroom as before. That way they could see who showed up before letting them in on the secret of the Shrieking shack (and it would let them get some wands over there to cast expansion charms in the meantime).

"We'll look really stupid if nobody shows up." muttered Neville as he sat down on a desk.

"Or if the only people that show up are Umbridge and her goons." Harry paced.

"Would you two stop stressing? It'll be fine" Hermione interrupted without looking up from her teaching notes, which she was obsessively reviewing. So far, they were the only ones there.

"Hey, Are we early,"

"or are you practicing disillusionment?" The twins came in. Before Harry could say anything, more students started to trickle in. Mostly fifth years, but a handful of third and fourth years as well, and even a couple of sixth years.

"Hey, mind if we join?" Harry turned in surprise to see Goyle and Hannah standing behind him.

"Umm.. I thought you were friends with Draco…" Harry asked nervously, looking for an escape path in case the Inquisitorial Squad burst in.

"Not so much this year." Greg shrugged. It was like watching an avalanche, "Or ever, really. I just hung out with him because… I don't know" another shrug. Hannah took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Harry!" Hermione came over, hyperventilating. Several strands of hair had escaped from her coiffure and were waving around like floating seaweed.. "This way, WAY more than I was expecting! I can't teach this many!"

Harry looked around - the room was full. Harry noticed Luna and Collin in the crowd. He wasn't certain what to think of that.

"I'll help" interrupted Neville, "You take a group and start on the material that you want to go over. I'll take some the younger years and go over basics with them. And Harry can take a group that you already taught and have them practice. That way the ideas will stick better."

"Ok. ok, I can do that" Hermione brushed her hair back and cast a charm to pull it back into the the bun so tightly Harry was certain he could hear it scream.

The rest of the session went remarkably smoothly. Neville had a real talent for making the younger students feel comfortable, and he could tell when they understood what he was saying, as opposed to when they just THOUGHT that they did. Meanwhile, Hermione was going over spell chains, and when it was worthwhile to use them, to trade power for speed.

"I bet that's why Dualists use them - they don't need to get much power in their spells - they just need a clean hit." Terry commented, " But in a real fight, you want the maximum power."

"Let's give it a try" Harry motioned for Terry (and a couple of others that were like minded) to step off to the side. "let's do a quick bout - you cast at full power, and I'll cast spell chain style" They walked 20 feet apart and took fighting stances.

"Expelliarmus!" Terry started'

"Protego lumos impello accio protego" Warry began to weave. Terry's expelliarmus smashed through his protego, but it was nocked just enough off to the left so that when Harry stepped to the right at the same time, it missed him narrowly. At the same time, Terry had to protego to avoid Harry's spells. The spells kept coming, so Terry was forced to keep his protego up. His concentration was starting to waver as he waited for Harry to run out of spells when there was a brief pause. It was unexpected enough that he didn't drop his protego, so he was greatly surprised when a regular strength Expelliarmus from Harry slammed right through it and nocked him onto his keister. Which is saying something, as Harry's regular strength spells were nothing spectacular.

"How did you do that?" Asked one of the Weasley twins. He had been one of the students watching the demonstration.

"When I started casting, Terry was stuck - his full power protego is slow to cast, so he couldn't cast a new one to counter each of my attacks."

"But your attacks were weak - my protego could block them without any effort. so why WOULD I cast a new one?"

"Because it's hard to keep it at full strength. If you have to keep protego, or any shield, up for a long time, it will tend to weaken as your concentration wavers. And since I was casting weak spells, you didn't notice that you had slowly lowered your guard, so when I cast a full power spell, it went right through it like tissue paper. Think of it as a fighter throwing all jabs at your body. Your arms will lower as you block them, and then when he changes it up to throw a hook at your head, you aren't ready to block it. Two things you can do to counter this: use quick, targeted protegos, and avoid getting roped into a static defense. Always think offensively. Cast a shield only so that you can get to your next attack."

"What if you are in the middle of the room, and you have spells coming from all sides?"

"In that case crouch down and raise your strongest Protego"

"You crouch down so that you're a smaller target, right?"

"No, you do it so that you can kiss your ass goodbye, because you're going to be toast." replied Harry, "Be aware of your surroundings so that you don't get caught in a crossfire in the first place."

The session went on for an hour before Hermione finally called time, "Ok, guys I hope you learned something"

"And had fun," interrupted Harry.

"And had fun. We'll have another one next week, but I need to figure out schedules, so I'll get back to you with when.

After a few goodbyes, all the students filed out, leaving Harry, Hermione and Neville.

"That went great!" beamed Harry, "I can't believes so many students showed up, and we did some cool stuff. Padma had a neat idea for casti..." Harry noticed that Hermione didn't look so thrilled, "What's the problem?"

"It's too many people! And I'm not talking about teaching - your idea worked great. I'm worried that somebody will rat us out to Umbridge, and we'll spend the rest of the school year in detention, writing lines!" She shuddered, hugging herself. Harry walked over and put his arms around his girlfriend.

"We could have each student cast an unbreakable vow not to reveal the meetings."

"You can only make a magical promise like that for something that already happened" Neville shook his head, "You'd have to have each student cast the vow after each meeting - it would take too long."

The three friends pondered. "I can't think of any spell that would do the job. We need a ritual or something" Hermione finally said in defeat.

"Maybe I'll floo Professor Loew and ask if he knows anything - he knows all sorts of non-hermetic magic." Harry stood up and stretched.

"It's worth a shot." Hermione continued to gnaw on her thumbnail as she pondered the problem.

"That means you can stop worrying about it for right now!" Harry grabbed her hand and pulled his girlfriend to her feet. "Let's go - it's almost curfew."

*Meta*Meta*

"It's always nice to hear from you, Harry. Next time, don't wait to call until you need help." Adam responded. It was late that same evening, and the Ravenclaw common room where Harry was floo- calling Professor Loew was almost empty.

Harry had wanted to wait until all the students went to bed, but Hermione had pointed out that Professor Loew might not be taking floo-calls in the middle of the night. So they had compromised, and Hermione was sitting in a couch near the fireplace, maintaining a weak Muffliato to cover Harry's conversation.

"Well. I had heard that there were some odd goings on at Hogwarts, with Dumbledore suspended and.."

"Suspended!" Harry started,

"Shh!" hissed Hermione, "I can't make the Muffliato any stronger or people will notice!"

"Sorry!" Harry turned back to Adam, "what do you mean suspended?"

"It's not official, but I heard from some people I know that Dumbledore has been quietly asked to take some time off. Your Ministry doesn't want to make a big deal about it, so it hasn't been in the news."

"Oh. That makes this all the more important - is there any way to guarantee that nobody will tell Umbridge?"

Adam sighed, "Yes, there is. We used it in the French Resistance when we were fighting against Grindelwald and his Nazi sorcerers. It is a contract that prevents any who sign it from speaking or revealing the organization in any way. Be very careful with it Harry - it is very strong magic. I usually wouldn't give out a powerful magic to a school boy, but I do NOT like the direction that the British Ministry is heading. I have seen enough repression to recognize the early stages. I will write up the contract for you tomorrow. But right now, I need the name of your organization and its goals."

"We are.. the Defense Association and our goals are to learn how to defend ourselves from those that wish to do us harm!" Harry said quickly. Hermione scowled, but didn't say anything, as she was concentrating on the Muffliato

"And who are the commanding officers, I mean club heads?"

"That will be Hermione, me and Neville."

"Ok, I'll have it for you tomorrow."

*Meta*Meta*

"This looks serious!" Harry read over the contract that Adam Loew had sent him. "It makes us sound like a group of guerrilla fighters.

"I'm not surprised" Hermione replied, "After all, it IS based on the one used by the Resistance. Though I hadn't realized that Professor Loew is that old. That would make him almost the same age as Dumbledore, but he looks like he's no more than middle aged."

"I don't think Adam is actually human," Harry replied quietly, "Last year when I was training with him, he made references to being several hundred years old. So.. At the next meeting, we have everybody sign this?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, we can't call another meeting until everybody's signed the contract. It's too risky. We got really lucky that nobody called the Inquisition squad down on the first meeting. They probably didn't realize how many people were going to show up."

"Ok. I guess we can go from person to person and have them sign." Harry was skeptical. getting people all to sign something ominous like this contract would be much easier in a group, when you had a feeling for what you were joining. On your own.. it was kind of scary.

"And I can cast the Protean Charm on some sickles which we can hand out at the same time. The coins will then all be linked together, and if we transfigure one, they will all show the same thing. It will let us send secret messages to the members."

*Meta*Meta*

"I thought you wanted to learn Defense?" Harry asked. He had pulled Andrew Goldstein aside after Care of Magical Creatures to have him sign the contract.

"Yeah, but this is too messed up, man. I'm not signing something like that." he walked off.

Harry leaned back against the Thestral's corral. Andrew was the fourth Ravenclaw in a row to turn him down.

"Hey, is this for the Defense club?' Harry turned to see Collin. '_Oh, yeah, fourth year Gryffs have Magical Creatures next.'_

"Yeah. We need everybody who want to be a member to sign a magically binding pledge not to reveal the club. To, you know, Umbridge" Harry said half heartedly.

"Makes sense. Let me see it." Collin quickly skimmed the contract and then signed his name. "I'll talk to the other Gryffindors that were there - I'm certain that most will understand."

Harry's jaw dropped open, "Great! Thank you!" '_I guess that's the difference between Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. I wonder if the '__Puffs__will__ sign it as __easily__?' _

*Meta*Meta*

That evening, Terry sat down next to Harry in the Common Room. "What's this I hear about having to sign a contract in order to train in Defense?" Several other Ravenclaws who had been at the Defense session were came also, standing in a clump behind him.

As Harry looked up, Hermione interrupted, "You know it makes sense."

"Yeah, it does. Give it here." Terry took the contract and spread it out on the table. All the hovering Ravenclaws descended on it like crows. Simon pulled out a dictionary, and Padma brought out a dusty tome titled "British Ministry of Magic Basic Law - Vol IX: Self Enforcing contracts"

Soon the the group of Ravenclaws were picking apart the contract, "This is way too harsh!" Simon looked up, "You gotta change this clause." He pointed to a section that was written in legalize and made no sense to Harry.

"Oh, this is good!" Crowed Terry,

"Yeah, that closes a bunch of loop holes, some of which I hadn't even thought of until I read it." Agreed Mandy, "But you need to make the language more gender neutral.."

"Legally, 'He' and 'him' are considered as applying to both wizards and witched" corrected Padma.

"That's offensive" returned Mandy.

"Yeah, I know. We need to come up with a gender neutral pronoun for the English Language," Andrew agreed.

"Guy's, we're getting side-tracked" Terry pulled the the arguing students back to the document in question.

After a half hour, he leaned back, "So, what do you think?"

"Well, I think with a few correction, I would be willing to sign it." volunteered Simon.

"We can't correct it - a bunch of Gryffindors have already signed on" Harry answered nervously, _'besides, I'm certain that changing the wording would weaken the magic' _Harry thought back to his lessons on Gematria and other word magic from last year.

"We could just have them initial the emendation."

"No." Hermione scowled down at the gaggle of students clustered around the table. "It's too late to change the contract. Either you sign it as is, or you don't sign it. And we will only tutor the Gryffindors."

The Ravenclaws looked at each other. "We'll sign, we'll sign." Terry grabbed a pen.

*Meta*Meta*

Harry knocked on the Hufflepuff's door. _'I hope this doesn't take too long - it's almost curfew' _He glanced at his watch as he waited for somebody on the other side to let him in. _"I hope it's not Ernie - he won't even listen to me.'_

"Oy. What are you doing way out here, little 'claw. This isn't your dorm. " Harry looked up - it was Cassius Warrington, a seventh year Slytherin and a member of the Inquisitorial Squad.

"I'm visiting friends. That's allowed isn't it?" Harry scowled. He tried to recall if it was or wasn't - the 'High Inquisitor' had been blasting out so many decrees that he wasn't certain.

"I don't like your attitude, Potter. I want you to get down and give me 10 push ups." Cassius put his hands on his hips and pronounced imperiously.

"What?" Harry boggled, "Do you think this is the army and your a drill sergeant? You're just an arrogant arsehole who thinks that being part of a gang makes you better than everybody else." Harry couldn't believe what he was saying. _'What happened to keeping my head down and not drawing attention?'_

"What…?" Cassius' hand crept for his wand, but Harry was faster.

"Expelliarmus!"

Unfortunately, he jerked his wand too fast, and the the flash of light that hit the Slytherin only was strong enough to knock his stunner off target.

"Hey, What's going on?" Harry looked up to see the other two members of the Inquisitorial squad running up.

'_Shit!' _Harry took off running as spells rained down on his heels.

He raced through the almost empty hallways, with the three older boys in close pursuit. Periodically a spell would flash out at him, but Harry avoided long straight corridors were he would be an easy target.

He swerved right and raced up the stairs. He paused for a moment to cast a slipping jinx on one of the steps before continuing. As the stairs doubled back on themselves after the landing, he whirled around and hunkered down. Moments later, the Inquisitorial squad came running up, taking the steps two at a time. The first boy leaped over the slippery step without noticing it. But just at that moment, Harry opened up with a barrage of spells. As they ducked away from the spells, Cassius hit the slippery step and went down flailing.

"Lumos, Expelliramus, lumos, stupefy, lumos" He rained down on the boys. The two who were still standing cast protego over themselves and Cassius, who was holding on to the banister as he tried to regain his footing.

'_I can't keep this up. There are three of them. Sooner or later one of them will clue in that it only takes one to cast protego over all of them.'_ Harry cast a quick glance to see where the stairs were headed, _'Not good. these go up to the Astronomy tower. There's no where else to go, except…'_ there was another stair that ran.. somewhere, probably the sixth floor, going by crosswise ten feet away.

A flash of red hit the stairs near Harry. _'Shit! they figured it out!' _He ducked down as several more Stupefies hit near him. But just then, an flash of purple hit one of the Slytherins from the other stair, knocking his wand from his hand. The other two boys looked around in confusion. Harry took the opportunity to cast Lumos, momentarily blinding his antagonists.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he cast on himself and leaped to the other stair. _'I wonder who…"_

Luna caught him as he landed, "Nice flying, but you really should try using a broom. It's more comfy on the tuchus." She remarked as she pulled him through the door to the third floor.

"Uhm, thanks." Harry wasn't certain what to say. " I appreciate the help."

"Well, I've come to realize that you're the sort of boy that needs a lot of it. Come on, there is a another staircase over here." She pulled him along. After several breathless minutes of running, they were back on the second floor, with no pursuit in sight.

"So, are you wearing the Wrackspurt net that I gave you last year?" Luna asked, as the two teens leaned back against the wall, panting.

"What?"

Luna sighed, "That explains it. Helpless AND mindless." she patted Harry's arm, "Don't worry. I'll get you another one. That way you can at least keep the few wits that you have left about you."

"Thanks. I think?" _'Did she just insult me?'_

"I'll see you around" Luna rubbed Harry's arm again and walked off.

*Meta*Meta*

In the end, Neville was the one who got the Hufflepuffs to sign on.

"It was no problem. Susan and I are still friends, so she and Hannah were willing to sign the contract right away. And once they did, the rest followed without question." Neville replied as he handed back the contract at dinner. He was sitting at the Gryffindor table, near the end, so that he and Neville could talk in relative privacy.

Harry took a quick glance. The bottom half of the document was now filled with names. "Goyle is on here."

"Yeah. He and Hannah are inseparable. Susan's joking about wedding bells and stuff. Except I'm not certain if she's actually joking."

Harry shrugged. He didn't want to think about that sort of thing, "I need to ask Hermione when she wants to have the next meeting. You did give the 'Puffs the enchanted Sickles, right?"

"Yes, yes. Don't worry. And I made sure that all the Gryffindors have theirs as well" Neville reassured his co-conspirator. "AND I told Ron not to let the twins get their hands on his."

"The twins aren't going to rat us out. They hate Umbridge." Since Harry had gotten to know them over the summer, Harry was a lot less nervous about the Twin Terror of Gryffindor.

"I'm not worried about that. But you know how they are - they'll end up breaking it while trying to figure out how it works. And you can't tell them not to - they have a serious problem with authority."

Harry nodded. The twins had refused to sign the Contract because they felt it was too restrictive. Neville glanced at the Ravenclaw table. "Speaking of 'authority', why don't you invite Hermione over to sit with us the next time?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because she hasn't attended Hogwarts until this year, but she's a stickler for rules. She's a Ravenclaw, so she figures she should eat at the 'claw table." Harry glanced back at the table in question. Hermione was sitting by herself. Again. '_She really is bad at making friends'_

Neville snorted, "So how does she manage to put up with you?"

"What do you mean? I follow the rules."

"Oh? Who's organizing an illegal club? Who snuck illegal herbs into school last year?"

"I told you - Marijuana is not illegal in Magical England!"

"That's only because British Wizards don't know what it is."

"And the club is only illegal because Umbridge's rules are stupid" Harry continued. He glanced back at Hermione again. "Look, I'll talk to you later. Hermione's sitting all by herself, so.."

"Go, Go" Neville made a shooing motion. As Harry walked off, he muttered, "whipped."

*Meta*Meta*

The rest of the semester went much the same way. DADA was a waste of time, Umbridge was insufferable, and none of the other professors did anything. And nobody saw hide nor hair of Dumbledore.

For the first time, Harry was looking forward to leaving Hogwarts for winter break.

The only bright spot in this dreary landscape was the Defense Associations. More than half the original students ended up signing on, and with the polarizing atmosphere in the school, they had soon coalesced into a tight knit group - having signed the contract that made them feel like rebels also helped. And in some mysterious fashion, Harry 'keep-his head down, don't take any risks' Potter had become their de-facto leader.

"Are you certain you want to do this?" Hermione asked Neville. The day before end of term found the three leaders of the DA in the size-expanded Shrieking Shack, waiting for the rest of the group to show up. What had once been a small, ramshackle room, more a shed with pretensions than a real house, was now a hundred feet across on the inside (give or take - Luna had done the size expansion charms, and some of the walls had ended up not quite straight. She insisted that that it was better that way). They were going to have a team competition: Blue team (aka Team Hermione) versus Green team (aka Team Longbottom). Except that Team Hermione was going to smear team Longbottom. "I have all Ron and Terry, and a lot of your team are the younger students that you train."

They trio continued to teach the same way as on the first day: Neville covered the basics, Hermione covered advanced theory, and Harry covered tactics. Unsurprisingly, when teams were drawn up, many of the students that were learning with Neville volunteered for his team.

"No, I actually like the group that I got. Besides, we already practiced together all of last week."

"Practice will only carry you so far. Neville, you need native talent as well" reminded Hermione.

"And what, you're saying that they don't have talent, because most of them aren't Ravenclaws?" Neville asked, sternly.

"No!, not at all.." Hermione defended., looking to Harry for help. He just shrugged, as if to say 'it's your argument'. "many of the Gryffindors are very talented spell casters. But age does make a difference. The younger students just aren't as good."

"Not on their own," Neville replied with a smile.

As the students made their way into the giant shack, they filtered to their respective captains, with a little cheerful trash talk along the way.

Harry watched the scene with a feeling of burgeoning pride. He was going to be refereeing the contest, so he sat off to one side. '_People really like the DA. We made something really cool'._ The students were happy and relaxed, something that they weren't able to be out in Umbridge's Hogwarts. A smile crept onto Harry's face. He didn't have a lot of experience at success. "Ok, everybody. Listen up! You know the rules - It's capture the flag, with a twist. You can cast any spells you want in the middle section here" He pointed to the majority of the room, "As long as they aren't going to injure anybody. But in the safe zones," He pointed to small areas at either end of the room, "only the defending team can cast spells. The point of the game is to capture the flag from the opponents safe zone and to bring it over to me. Take ten minutes to prepare, and then I'm going to blow the whistle."

Harry watched as both teams transfigured their safe zones. Team Hermione caused a row of stalagmite-like obstacles to sprout from the floor, while team Neville created a platform half way up the wall.

"Oy, Neville - that's against the rules - your flag has to be accessible to the other team. And we aren't using brooms"

"Don't worry, our flag won't be up there." Neville replied.

Harry shrugged, _"this is going to be interesting'_. After the promised ten minutes, Harry pulled out a whistle and gave a blow.

"TWEET!"

The two teams began casting spells and jockeying for position. Some of the older students transfigured the floor to provide better cover. Others just blasted away at anybody on the opposing team that they saw.

Soon, the relative ability levels of the team began to show. Ron was a talented wizard, and his training with Harry had given him a good situational awareness. He was Incarcerous-ing and stupifying Neville's' younger players one after the other

"protego" Goyle blocked a tickling charm aimed at a third year who was trying to untie the laces of his sneakers, which were now tangled together from a tripping jinx. The third year looked up and realized his error.

"Thanks" he pulled off his sneakers and darted for cover as Goyle blocked another spell from Ron. Ron frowned and began a spell chain. Goyle grunted and cast protego. Goyle was a slow caster, so he had had no chance to switch to the offense, but every time there was a pause, he cast another protego. Ron tried to circle around him, but Goyle managed to squeeze out a quick jinx to block his way.

Terry was having similar problems with Luna. Part of successful dueling was being able to predict what your opponent was going to do next. In some ways, dueling a talented opponent was easier than going against a novice. But there was no way to predict what spell Luna would cast next. She would cast defensive spells when Terry expected her to go on the offensive, and using aggressive spells to protect herself, by throwing him off balance so that he couldn't get a bead on her. But she wasn't an amateur either - her spells weren't sloppy, and they were effective. Mostly. It was a stalemate.

As for the rest of the teams, if one of Hermione's Blue players could get one of the Greenies in a one on one dual, it was no contest. but Neville's Greenies worked together in teams to keep their superior opponents from overpowering them. And to help that along, Neville and two other Greens were on the raised firing platform, casting spell chains to prevented Hermione from sending reinforcements to any Blues that were locally outnumbered.

"Stupify!" Ron cast, hammering away at Goyle shield. Goyle grimaced and reinforced his protego. What had started as a dual had degenerated into a static contest of endurance. Who would last longer - Ron or Goyle? Tactics favored Ron, as defending was harder than attacking. Goyle already had a rope wrapped around one arm, and his shoelaces were acting like love-sick anacondas.

Ron was just circling for the kill when...

"Incarcerous"

Glowing ropes flew in from Ron's left side, wrapped around him, as Hannah stepped into view.

"You ok, honey?" she asked, just before being hit by a Stupify from Hermione. Goyle cast Protego again, but he was hammered down by Hermione, Simon and Padma working in concert. The three fifth years took turns casting Protego to ward off the chain spell-fire from above, while the other two combined their not-inconsiderable strength to blast any of the Greens that they could catch. They finally stupified Luna, and had made their way to the edge of the safe zone when...

TWEET

"And the victor is team Neville!" Harry called out. A third year boy stood next to him, holding the blue flag.

"What?!" hermione turned back to her safe zone. "Andrew! I told you to guard the flag!"

"I kind of got distracted", the Ravenclaw replied sheepishly, as he got up from behind a stalagmite which he had been using for cover while dueling Mandy.

"Everybody played well!" Interrupted Harry before Hermione could get started on a rant. He loved his girlfriend, but she had a competitive streak a mile wide, and didn't always know when to turn it off. "Everyday get cleaned up, and get Finite'd if you need it. I figure we all deserve a party! Hermione, Neville, help me bring out the soda and snacks."

"That was really very impressive, Nev" Harry complemented his friend as they carried in the Pumpkin Juice and butterbeers.

Neville shrugged "Hermione is really smart, but she tends to focus too much on one thing. And she gets competitive, so she tends to forget teamwork. I used that to my advantage."

"Yeah, but that firing platform was brilliant!" gushed Harry.

"Yes.. Well played Mister Longbottom!" Hermione held out her hand to shake. Harry rolled his eyes and Neville just smiled.

It didn't take long for the group to degenerate into a loud, raucous mob. "It's a good thing that I bought those sound wards" Simon said with smug self satisfaction, pointing to the small ward stones placed around the perimeter of the huge room.

"Hey, I ponied up most of the money for those!" Terry replied, in mock anger, taking a sip of his butterbeer.

"If I had sent out my players in trios from the start.." Hermione was still analyzing the game, an hour later. Harry sighed. Everybody else was having a good time, but Hermione wouldn't let it go. They were standing off to the side of the drinks table

"Hermione, tis isn't the time for that" he grabbed his girlfriends hand.

"Oh? What is it time for?" she asked, distractedly, still lost in thought.

"How about this?" Harry stepped in and snaked a hand behind her head as he kissed her.

Hermione got a panicky look on her face, and her eyes darted to all the people around. But Harry was persistent, so she resigning herself to being the center of gossip for the next week. At least it would be vacation. Besides. The kiss was nice.

The whole DA broke out in in uproarious applause. Except Luna, who was scowling, With a sigh, Collin puled her in for a liplock as well.

Goyle and Hannah glanced at each other and rolled their eyes at the antics.

*Meta*Meta*

It was almost curfew when the party broke up. "Do you think Umbridge will go easy on the curfew, since it's the end of term?" asked Terry.

"This is Um-bitch we're talking about. No." Collin replied.

One of the big changes in the DA was how students from different houses and years had started to mingle more. With even quidditch being broken up by house, the DA was one of the few clubs that crossed House boundaries.

The students filed out in twos and threes to return to their dorms. Harry and Hermione were the last to leave. "Come on, Hermione, we can finish cleaning later."

"When? Are you staying for break?" asked Hermione.

"Definitely not. But it's just a little litter. It will be fine until next term. We won't make curfew if we don't go now" Harry pulled at her sleeve.

"I guess that's more important. I just hate leaving something half done!"

"Come on, miss perfect." Harry said with a smile as he looped arms with his girlfriend. They walked back into Hogwarts. Where they were met by a scene right out of a war movie.

Umbridge was standing in courtyard yelling something and shaking her fist as George and Fred flew their brooms, jinking and dodging as several Inquisitorial squad members fired spell at them.

The Weasley twins retaliated with stink bombs and other "novelties", such as the one that had turned Umbridge a shade of emerald green.

"What's going on?" Harry sidled up to a sixth year Puff who was watching in rapt attention.

"Umbridge just stormed into the great hall, saying she had proof that the Twins were the ones who had brought in the swamp. They took off on their brooms and started throwing stuff - dung bombs and color changing powders. Now it's all spilled outside.

"YOU! You are expelled!" Yelled Umbridge. She was shaking with fury, barely able to speak.

"No, We quit." Yelled one of the twins, using a sonorous charm from way up high. "If this… this prison is what Hogwarts has turned into, we are dropping out!" both twins waved and streaked off into the distance.

"Oy. Things are going to be ugly at the Weasley's over break. Maybe I should stay at Hogwarts" Harry muttered.

"Don't you dare!" Hermione glared at him. They had plans to get together over break.

"I was just joking. How bad can it get?"

.

**chapter end**

* * *

><p>I am surprised that nobody has even ventured a guess as to who Adam Loew is – He is an actual character from European (well, Jewish) folklore.<p> 


	5. Chapter 4

I am really glad that you all picked up on the fact that Adam Loew is the Golem (there is nothing worse, as a writer, then to come up with a cool idea, and have NOBODY NOTICE)

**START**

It was bad.

Harry sat in the room that the Weasleys had lent him, and flipped through a book. He wasn't certain what it was about, because he couldn't concentrate on it. The screaming had stopped, for now. Now was the deadly silence, as nobody in the house said anything. Earlier, Ron had tiptoed down the hall to go to the bathroom.

Nobody wanted to draw Molly's attention. She had already adequately demonstrated that she had more than enough yelling in her to share it among any who came into her line of sight, and that she didn't feel any need to save it up for just the twins. _'Thank god the twins never joined the DA. otherwise Mrs Weasley would find some way to blame me for them dropping out.'_

'_Two days until Adam Loew has the seminar. Maybe I should floo him and have it at Neville's? Or maybe HE can do something about Mrs. Weasley' _Harry mused. Merlin only knows Arthur was powerless in the face of his wife's anger.

'_Hermione's on vacation with her family until next week. So I can't get together with her…'_ Harry got up and tiptoed over to Ron's room. "Hey Ron - is there anyplace to hang out around here? Like a mall or something?"

Ron looked up from the quidditch magazine that he had been reading. "Nothing really in walking distance. Ottery St. Catchpole is pretty rural. If you want to go into town, you have to floo."

"Uh, I'd have to ask your mother for the floo powder, right?"

Ron nodded glumly.

Harry sat down next to him on the bed. "How long do you think it will be before she calms down?"

"I don't know - it's already been two days. The twins are taking it surprisingly well - when this happened with Percy, he took off that same afternoon, and he hasn't visited since."

"Mmm." both boys sat quietly, trying to come up with a plausible excuse to leave the house. One that didn't involve having Molly rain fire and brimstone on them.

"We could say that we need more Potions ingredients." Harry volunteered.

Ron paled "Oh, Merlin, no. Then we would get the lecture on thrift."

"How about…" Harry rubbed his chin, 'What if we tell her that we need to take some air?" Sometimes, honesty actually worked. Weird but true.

"Could work, but we have to phrase it as 'taking a constitutional'. Mum is big on constitutionals. Says walking is good for your health."

With a plan in hand, the two boys made it out of the Burrow unscathed. Molly even nodded approvingly, and muttered something about 'growing boys'. They power walked until they were out of sight of the Burrow before slowing down to an amble.

"So, you want to see the town center? I'm going to warn you, it's all of three buildings and a library." Ron asked, adjusting his scarf in the brisk winter breeze.

"Yeah. A library is as good a destination as any."

Ron rolled his eyes. "You Ravenclaws." They walked in companionable silence for some time and looked at the cows. "Sorry for being a bit of a git this year." Ron said out of the blue. "I didn't mean to blow you off, but you know…"

"It's ok. Nev told me you didn't mean anything by it. He's really good with people." Harry had never understood why some of his peers got so upset when they were ignored. Being ignored was often much, MUCH better than some alternatives. He actually kind of liked it. "Sides, I was spending most of my time with Hermione."

"Yeah, girlfriends will suck up all your time. Lee started dating Alicia, and that was the end of him. He never hangs out with Seamus and Dean and me anymore."

"Well, you could get yourself a girlfriend too."

"Yeah, you don't think I haven't tried?" Ron replied scathingly, "But I don't know how to talk to girls. They are into clothes and makeup and girly stuff. I guess I could fake an interest in that."

"No, don't go there." Harry quickly stopped that disastrous idea. He remembered Parvati, "How about you find a girl who is interested in the same stuff as you are?"

"Like what? Quidditch and Martial Arts? Most of those are about as feminine as.. I don't know, Bulstrode." Harry didn't know how to reply to that. He knew he wasn't a great authority on dating. So they continued on for a while in silence.

"Whoa - who lives there?" Harry pointed a house that looked like a lopsided tower. Many of the houses they had passed were somewhat fanciful, but this one was… ominous. The way it was leaning, it had to be supported by magic, but that wasn't the problem. The lack of windows except for one token pair over the front entryway made it look like an evil magician's lair. Or a witches hat.

"Actual, odd that you asked. That's the Lovegood house."

"As in Luna?" Ron nodded. Harry paused and leaned on the the split rail fence bordering the road. "Growing up in that would certainly make anybody a little odd." Harry continued to gaze at the building.

"Um. We should go." Ron jerked his head down the road. "You know, it's weird to be standing there staring at your ex's house like that. Stalker-ish weird."

Harry nodded. With one last glance at the house, they continued down the road.

"Um, mind if I ask you a question?" Ron asked a few minutes later, "How come you and Luna broke up?"

"I have NO idea. The whole thing was her idea. One day she decided that we were going out, and then, we come back from summer break and she's acting like she doesn't know who I am. Literally!" Harry made an abrupt gesture with his hand, as if to knock the whole topic away.

"Did something happen over the summer? Did you talk to her or something?" Ron was checked out on saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. He had a real talent for, so he knew how that could really tick girls off. Now if only he could figure out WHY what he said made them frown at him like that..

"No, we didn't talk… Well, she called once, but my muggle relatives were there, and I didn't want them to know anything about Luna, so I didn't really talk to her. That would have been a disaster - they already think I am a freak."

Ron nodded and sagely held his tongue. On rare occasions, Ron showed flashes of wisdom.

*Meta*Meta*

Things at the Burrow finally improved the next day, when Fred informed the family that that he and George had gotten a commission from Zonko's for 200 Canary Creams and a sampler of Skiving Snackboxes.

Things got even better when Adam Loew arrived that Wednesday. He spent the next three days going over new material with Harry, Ron and Neville in the mornings, and sparring in the afternoons, mostly with Harry.

"Harry, you have improved dramatically. One thing you should consider is integrating your magic into your fighting style." Rumbled Adam, readjusting his bandana. Harry was getting a drink of water as they took a break from sparring. Both were dressed in traditional Gis, except Adam wore a bandana. He usually had something on his head. Harry figured he was self conscious of the tattoo on his forehead - he had a word in what was probably Hebrew written there.

"Is that allowed?"

"Harry, I am teaching you to defend yourself. There is not 'allowed' or 'not allowed' There is only 'works' or 'doesn't work'. And one technique that magic wielding martial artists use with great success is to wear runes that increase their speed and strength. They usually inscribe them on bracelets or necklace. The more spread out over their body the runes are, the better."

"Or they can tattoo them on their body" Harry glanced up at Adam's bandana.

Adam rumbled a laugh. "No, that is something different. Runes have to be inscribed onto a hard object to be effective. Though some might say that my head qualifies" Adam's teeth looked like tombstones as he smiled. "There are some South American wizards that can use tattoos for magic, but I do not know that art. It involves pictures, not words.

"Where would I get these rune stones?" Harry was already planning on how to scrimp on his school supplies so that he could buy a set. No doubt they would be expensive.

"For the runes to work for you, you have to carve them yourself. I will give you a book. Another trick is to write wards onto your robes. Usually wind based wards, to help deflect attacks and to keep your robes from tangling you or getting in your way. That I can help you with after training. But for now, I will attack you and you will counter. With takedowns."

Harry sighed. As much as he enjoyed sparring, getting a takedown to work on Adam was almost impossible. He was large, heavy, and he was always set over his center of balance. The only way to get him off of his feet was to guide his attack and pull his balance forward, and then use a series of locks and attacks to knock him down. All without a pause. Because if Adam stopped, he became rooted like a mountain - he wasn't going anywhere he didn't want to.

They were training outside, in a section of the Weasley's back yard that had been specially warded against snow. Bill and Charlie Weasley (who Harry had just met for the first time) were home for Christmas, and they, along with the twins, spent some time watching the sessions, but Molly and Arthur were too busy cooking and preparing for the holiday.

As the light started to fade to dusk, Adam called it a day.

"What did I hear you telling Harry about Runes?" asked Bill. "I am a Curse Breaker, so I can give him a hand with those."

"That would be appreciated, " Adam pulled out a small, slightly rumpled leather-bound book from a pocket in his Gi that wasn't there (or hadn't been, a moment ago). "These are runes schemes that I usually have my students use, but most of the material in here assumes a good understanding of basic runes. This will be Harry's Christmas present from me"

Bill looked through the book, quirking an eye, "I don't think I have seen most of these combinations before. Some of them look Chinese.. whoa!" He stopped dead as he got pulled into the material, "Don't you think it's risky doing this linkage between spirit and wind in Hebrew?"

Adam smiled, "It is very powerful, no? I agree that you have to take care carving it, but as long as you have a partner watching you, ready to counter any effects if your hand slips, it is not particularly dangerous."

Charlie and Harry leaned over, trying to get a glimpse. Harry, being the shortest, couldn't see anything, but he figured that he would have the book in his hands soon enough, so he could wait. "What sort of stuff could happen if your hand slips?"

"Oh, you might not be able to get enough air, stuff like that. And it's very hard to cast a counterspell if you can't breath." Bill replied, handing the book to Harry. "Are you going to be staying for dinner, Adam?"

"I am sorry, no. I have already made arrangements for my meals."

"It would be no problem - mom loves feeding people." Charlie countered.

"Yes, but I keep kosher, which her kitchen is not set up for."

"Oh." Bill paused, as he tried to kop what that meant, "In that case, we probably shouldn't invite you for Christmas."

Adam smiled, "no. And I have appointments I must meet next week. I have to go to Argentina on Sunday."

*Meta*Meta*

Harry sat in his room and stared at list of instructions listed in the first chapter of Adams rune book.. It was the day after Christmas, so there was finally enough calm for Harry to take a good look at the the basic designs that Adam had left. The presents had been presented and opened, and dinner had been eaten. Harry had also gotten a set of robes warded not to tangle around his arms and legs when he did martial arts (or anythi8ng else active) from Adam, a bag of candy from Ron, a book on the history of dragons from Charlie, and a sweater from the rest of the Weasleys.

"Hey, Bill?" Harry poked his head out of his room, "You said that you could give me a hand with these?"

Bill pulled up a chair and sat down next to Harry at the desk. "I'll walk you through how to do this set, but it will take you several days to carve, and I have to go back to work tomorrow - the goblins aren't really big on holiday cheer. So you'll have to make these on your own."

"That's ok. Prof. Loew said I would have to carve them myself." All of a sudden, Harry's eyes got big, "Um, are these safe to carve without somebody watching me?"

"Yeah - all of chapter one and two look like they're ok. It's chapter four and five that get really scary." Bill had managed to skim the book before christmas dinner. He had used it as an excuse to avoid the chores that his mother had assigned to everybody else in the house, Harry included. "Chapter one just helps with alertness and will help prevent you from twisting your ankle or pulling a muscle. I've never seen these rune sets, but I've heard of them - they are pretty common among Chinese wizards. Every year or two some quidditch player gets caught using them. They are illegal for professional sports." Bill pointed out the important parts of the procedure, and Harry rook notes. "So, I here you have a girlfriend?"" He asked

"Yeah - Hermione Granger. She's really brilliant - she's already graduated from Beauxbatons, even though she's less than a year older than me. We're going to get together for New Years."

Bill nodded, and was silent for a few moments, "You know about Ginny, right? Well, apparently she was a Harry Potter groupie. When she was ten, she was convinced that she had a crush on you."

"But I hadn't even met her then!" Harry was stunned to learn that he had 'groupies' and for what? He hadn't done anything. The whole 'Boy-Who-Lived' thing was something that just happened to happen to him.

"Who knows the minds of ten year old girls? I barely understand my own thinking from back when I was that age. But she spent hours playing house with her best friend, pretending that she was married to you. She even named a Teddy bear 'Bear-y Potter'"

"Oh my god" Harry dropped his face into his hands in mortification. "Dare I ask where this bear is now?"

"I'm not certain. I think Luna ended up with it."

"Luna?" Harry's stomach gave a sudden lurch.

"Yeah. Luna Lovegood - the Lovegoods live just down the lane. She was Ginny's best friend." Bill patted Harry's back as he got up to leave, "I'm just telling you, so that you know that having you stay here is a bittersweet experience for Mom and Dad."

*Meta*Meta*

He was gliding through a corridor. It was an unfamiliar place, but very orderly. The doors on either side of the corridor had nameplates, and large brass doorknobs.

There - in front of him was the door that he required. Only.. there was a man standing in front of it. It was dark, and he blended into the wall, so that the man's eyes couldn't see him, but he could feel the man's heat. He coiled in and sprang forward. The man yelled and wave his wand. something tore through his side, but he managed to wrap around the man and bite him. He gurgled as he fell.

Harry started awake, panting. '_That man was Arthur!' _Harry thought about what Hermione had said, that the dreams were all a product of his imaginations. But it had been so realistic – not like his dreams of Cedric. His heart was still pounding from the adrenaline. And he had no reason to dream Arthur getting injured. He quickly got up and pulled on his cloths.

"Hey, Ron!" he knocked on the neighboring bedroom door. "Ron! I got to ask you a question."

"Do you know what time it is, young man?" Molly asked, coming up the stairs from the living room.

"Mrs. Weasley - is Mr Weasley at home?" Harry felt silly asking - it was almost midnight, so where else would he be?

"No, he had to work late this evening, to make up for lost time over Christmas."

"I think… I think something happened to him!" Harry blurted out.

Molly froze for a moment before bustling quickly down the stairs and into the kitchen. Harry followed, confused.

"Oh, no!" She gasped. She stood before the Weasley clock. Arthur's hand was pointing at 'Mortal Peril'.

*Meta*Meta*

The Weasleys and Harry sat in a waiting room at St. Mungos. Bill comforted his mother as the other boys sat looking morose.

"How is he?" Dumbledore swept in the door.

Molly straightened up "The doctors think they got the antivenin into him in time, but they still don't know much damage he suffered. They aren't certain when he will wake up."

"I am sorry this happened, Molly."

The Weasley matriarch glanced at Dumbledore, "Me too. But we knew the risks. The fact that he was attacked shows that his being there wasn't just a waste of time."

"What are you talking about?" Ron demanded.

"Ronald, your father was working for me when he was attacked. He was standing guard over.. an important piece of magic that Voldemort would dearly like to get his hands on."

"Is that what you've been doing all year? Fighting Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"My actions have been… somewhat constrained this fall. I am doing what I can, both to guard against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and to restore my position at Hogwarts. I know what Ms. Umbridge has been doing at Hogwarts, and it is unconscionable."

Harry nodded, feeling lighter. At least somebody was DOING something. "I'd like to help" Harry surprised himself by saying.

Albus smiled, "You will help most by continuing your studies, Harry. There will still still be plenty of work to be done once you have graduated. The poison that Voldemort and his ilk have spread will take a long time to leach from the Wizarding world. But I do want to learn more about your dreams. This is not the first time you have dreamed an attack by Voldemort, is it?"

"No, sir,"

"Hmm. It might be that the two of you share some connection though your curse scar. I will have an associate of mine come by and talk to you about it. There may be something we can do to sever the connection, so that you can sleep undisturbed.."

"Thank you!"

The door to the surgery opened, and a mediwitch came out. "We have finished neutralizing the poison. And it looks like there was no permanent harm. But Mr Weasley will have to rest for the next several days. He is sleeping now, so you can come it for just a moment, but please do not disturb him."

As the Weasleys stepped into the surgery to reassure themselves that their father / husband was alright, Dumbledore took Harry's shoulder ,"Harry. I have heard rumors that you are running a Defense study group for all houses. I think that is a wonderful idea, but you might need more space. There is a room on the seventh floor in the left corridor of the Hogwarts castle, opposite the tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy attempting to teach trolls ballet. It is called the Room of Requirements. The entrance is hidden: to find it, you will need to to walk past the tapestry three times thinking about what you need, and the door will appear."

*Meta*Meta*

It was several days before Arthur was up and about. The day that he was able to walk with a cane, Molly made a special dinner, cooking all of his favorites. She was so distracted that she didn't notice the antics of the twins, most of which involved pranking Ron (or Ron's sometimes violent retaliation).

"Guys, ease up" Harry interrupted Fred (or possibly George) as he was about to lace Ron's food with something, "If you keep this up, Ron is going to get really pissed. We're supposed to be having a good time here."

"Yeah, I guess," Fred deflated. "It was just so serious here the last couple of days. it felt… unnatural."

"Stifling," threw in other-Fred - Harry had stopped trying to figure out which twin was which. He called them both Fred. Or sometimes Thing 1 and Thing 2. Luckily for him, Dr. Seuss was not popular in wizarding families..

Fred nodded, "The return to normality has taken a huge pressure off of us."

"Speaking of pressure, do you mind dropping by our lab at Hogwarts and retrieving our equipment? We spent a fair bit of money on it. Especially the reaction vessels, and it would be good to have them home."

"There's no rush - we don't need them for our current commission."

"But do it soon. I miss Norbert"

The other twin nodded and patted his back, "And I imagine Norbert misses his papa."

"Norbert?" asked Harry.

"Norbert is our dragon-flame proof high pressure reaction vessel. We had to special order it from Scandinavia."

"Ok. I'll see what I can do" Harry nodded, _'maybe I should charge them money for the service? Nah. They'll just charge me right back. That's not a game I can win'._

"Great! We'll get you an Ever-Expanding sack to hold all the stuff!"

Harry nodded, "How about one of those Luna-tacks as well."

"Oh, no, that won't work on Norbert. Or any of the other equipment either" Fred 1 shook his head.

"Besides, how would you get the goose into the sack?" added Fred 2.

"No, I just want a Luna-tack. It's a cool piece of magic, and I figure I should get some payment for my hard work."

Fred put his arm around Harry's shoulders, "Ah, spoken like a true entrepreneur!"

"Talk to us after you graduate - we might have a position for you, in the business side of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes." finished alter-Fred.

*Meta*Meta*

"Harry!" Hermione ran up and enveloped Harry in a hug, "I have great news - I have an internship at the Ministry of Magic for the spring semester!" The two teens were in Diagon Alley for their date. The Alley was crowded with witches and wizards looking at the animated ice sculptures and window shopping. All in all, it was a very party-like atmosphere as everybody waited for midnight and the New year.

"Oh." Harry didn't like the sound of that, "Does that mean that you aren't going to be at Hogwarts?"

"No, silly" Hermione grabbed Harry's hand, "I'll still be taking the two classes and the OWL prep, but I'll be flooing out to London right before lunch three days a week. It's an internship, not a full time job."

"Oh, good. I was worried that I wouldn't see you."

"That's sweet." Hermione almost glowed with joy. "Lets go get some ice cream and then we can walk around to the library - I hear that the Cornwall Jazz Quartet will be playing there."

"Ice cream? Hermione, It's winter!"

"So? That's what warming charms are for."

As the couple made their way to Fortescue's, Harry asked, "What are you going to doing for your internship?"

"I"m not certain - I think it's mostly secretarial work. The witch that interviewed me said something about cataloguing prophecies. It seems that their old cataloguing system wore out, so they have to re-enter everything into the new one from old ledgers. When I described it to my dad, he said it was like restoring a computer database from hard copy back up. Except the cataloguing charm predated computers - they had been using it since the early 1800's."

"And nobody thought about the fact that it might give out at some point?"

"I guess not. Magic can last an awful long time. Or may be they did think of it, but the best they could do was to make paper backups. You know how magical constructs develop a personality as they get older, and don't always do as they are told to."

Harry stopped in front of a shop. "Hey, you mind if we go in here?"

Hermione glanced at the name 'Albrins's Charms'. It was a magical jewelry store, specializing in more functional rather than aesthetic jewelry. "Sure. And I can pick up something as well. Oh!" Her eyes got big, "I completely forgot - I got you a present" she pulled out a small wrapped parcel, "It's a wand holster that automatically holsters your wand if you drop it. See?"

Harry unrolled the item - there was no actual slot to slip the wand into. Instead, the holster was a strip of fringed leather, and when Harry dropped his wand near it, the wand zipped over to it, until it was close enough for the fringes to grab hold. "Wow. That's pretty cool." He paused and looked embarrassed, "I was going to get you a book, I haven't had a chance yet."

"Well, how about you buy me something here?" Hermione pointed at the jewelry store. Harry gulped, "o-okay" _'I hope she doesn't pick anything too expensive'._

Harry quickly found a leather bracelet and and a blank pendant that he could inscribe with the runes from Prof. Loew's book, as well as a box of blank 'practice stones'. These were flat stones, 1" in diameter. The sales witch had insisted that practicing on regular rocks could produce unexpected results, and that you needed high quality, magically neutral practice stones to try out your runes on. They looked just like the sort of stones that the first years skipped on the pond at Hogwarts. Harry figured he was being fleeced, but he didn't want to take any risks - he absolutely wanted to get these runes working as soon as possible.

Ten minutes later, Harry was standing with his parcel under his arm as Hermione asked to try on yet ANOTHER necklace. "Do you think this one picks up my eyes?"

"I think so." Harry smiled and nodded. '_why is she __channeling __Parvati__? Does going into a store do this to all women?'._ Forty five minutes later, they escaped. Hermione had ended up having him purchase a small brooch. It had been the first one that she had looked at, when they had first entered the store.

Harry's annoyance didn't die down until the very end of the date, as they stood together watching the fireworks. Wizarding fireworks were nothing like the muggle kind. When they exploded, flaming shapes appeared. Fiery dragons swooped, a clutch of glowing bluebirds spiraled up around each other, and much more. Harry stood with Hermione leaning against him. He had had his arms wrapped around her, and her head leaned against his shoulder as they watched, enraptured.

*Meta*Meta*

"Potter. Your potions are inadequate, and well below what you can achieve with some effort, but they do show quantifiable improvement from fourth year." Snape handed Harry back the finale project from last term - a potion and Harry's description of the procedure he had used to brew it. "If you continue making this level of improvement, you will be an average potion brewer by the time you graduate. Pass." Snape turned to the next student, holding up a another potion and a lengthy scroll rolled into a tight tube. "Bones. You continue to put in an truly impressive level of effort into potions. If you had a modicum talent, your potions would be equally impressive. Fail. Patil…"

It was the first day of the spring term, and the annual midterm ritual in potions continued. Those students who had not yet received their project back sat in tense silence, waiting to be excoriated

'_With Hermione doing the internship, I guess I'll have to take over running the DA._' Now that Harry had his grade, he was able to relax and think about the rest of the semester, and it was looking… ok. Umbridge and her DADA was still a nightmare, but otherwise, it wasn't too bad. _'I should go check out that Room that Dumbledore recommended._

"Would you care to demonstrate, Potter?"

"What?" Harry sat up straighter.

"5 points from Ravenclaw for sleeping in class"

"I wasn't.." Harry automatically responded before he remembered where he was.

"And another 5 points for talking back. I had asked you to demonstrate the proper way to gut the Vilerous grubs for their ink sacs." Harry groaned. The ink was an irritant, and if you gutted the grub wrong, your hands would itch for hours. "Dealing with small irritating creatures is an important life skill, Potter. One you should cultivate, as I have." Harry frowned as he picked up the grub, and then continues with a shrug.

*Meta*Meta*

"What I can't figure" Said Harry around a mouth full of mashed potatoes, "Is whether Snape was insulting me or trying to create some weird camaraderie"

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Harry, It's gross" Hermione replied as she daintily sliced off a piece of her chicken.

"Sorry. I missed lunch - I was up in the Room of Requirements."

Hermione shook her head in bemusement, "From what you describe, I think Snape honestly likes you, in his bitter, dysfunctional fashion. That said, I am really, REALLY glad I don't have to take potions with him." Hermione shuddered as she remembered the horrors of her abortive first year at Hogwarts.

"Well, if that's how he acts with people he likes, I don't want to know how he is with people he hates."

"Oh, I could tell you about it." Neville sat down opposite the happy couple. "So, are we going to try holding the DA in the new room?"

Harry nodded and chewed faster, holding a napkin in front of his mouth in case his efforts didn't meet Hermione high standards, "Yeah, I checked it out. It really is very cool. We can set it up however we want for our training. I already have some ideas," Harry was just getting on a roll when an owl flapped down in front of him.

"Um, hello." Harry looked up in surprise. He had never gotten an owl before.

When nothing happened, the creature cocked it's head and stuck out it's leg in Harry direction.

"Oh, right." He untied the capsule and unrolled a parchment that was much too large to fit into it. "Huh. This says that Remus Lupin - I'm guessing that's Prof. Lupin from third year - is going to be dropping by on sunday to ask me a few questions about my visions of Voldemort."

Hermione grew thin lipped. She didn't like being wrong. But what she didn't like even more was the toxic evil that was Voldemort having some sort of psychic connection with her boyfriend. "Make sure to ask him if there is any way to block You-Know-Who."

"I know, I know" Harry rolled his eyes and patted Hermione's arm to calm her down. "But that's for Sunday. Right now, lets focus on tonight's DA meeting."

"I feel really bad that I can't lead it." Hermione moaned.

"Tomorrow is your first day at the internship - you have a valid excuse for being too stressed to deal with the DA." Harry reassured Hermione, "Besides, I got it covered. Terry will teach basics to the younger students - he's smart and easy going. Ron will do the same with the fifth years and the advanced fourth years - he's a little too hard core for the younger students. I will continue teaching applications, and Neville will spot check people" Harry glanced over to see if Neville was still good with this plan, "Nev is really good at understanding what's going on in people's heads, so I want him working one on one with students that just aren't getting something. Speaking of - who do you think are the best duelers in the DA, if we had to put together a team?"

Neville thought for a moment, "Well, Ron is tops for raw power, but power isn't everything. Terry, and Hermione and I are probably the most skilled, but again, that doesn't always count - you are just plain evil." Neville grinned at Harry

"Hey, what's this about evil?" Hermione mock scowled at Neville.

"You've dueled Harry - you know more spells than he does, and you're no slouch for power, but who usually wins your duals?"

"Harry. But that's because he good at predicting what spell I'm going to cast next."

"And because he gets the most effect out of the spells that he knows. And because his reaction speed is insane, and because if he gets close enough, he'll punch you. Like I said, he's evil!" Crowed Neville as Harry smiled, pleased but a little embarrassed at the attention. "Speaking of evil, if Luna ever manages to get her act together, she will also be a phenomenal dualist - she's fast, she knows a ton of spells, and she uses them in ways that no sane person would - there is NO way to predict what she's casting. Her only problem is that her concentration is horrid, and her power fades in and out like a Firstie in Binn's History of Goblin Invasions"

Harry snorted, "Yeah, by second year most students just sleep straight through HoM. Speaking of - hey, Luna - are you coming to DA this evening?" Harry asked as the blond walked up.

"I am sorry, no. That is what I was coming to say: I have Charms tutoring this evening."

Harry started. It felt weird not to have to have tutoring. _'Maybe I'll ask Prof Flitwick for some advanced tutoring. Or maybe one of the seventh years...' _"I miss tutoring" Harry smiled.

Luna blinked and cocked her head like an owl. At the same time, this rather innocuous statement drew a glare from Hermione.

*Meta*Meta*

"Today, I'd like to go over an application of spell chains. I was messing around with them, and and I realized that spell chains are a lot like attack combinations in Martial Arts." Harry was talking to the DA, sans Hermione. They had already spent a good fifteen minutes doing warm up drills, so he figured that they were starting to get bored. "Ron has volunteered to help me demonstrate."

"I did?" Ron looked up, surprised. The other DA members tittered.

"Clear a space. Ron, go to the other end of the room." Once they were 30 feet apart, Harry added, "On Neville's mark, attack."

Both boys took fighting stances, knees slightly bent, their bodies turned a little to the side to make them a smaller target but still allow for easy movement. Wands were held at the ready.

"NOW!"

"Protego," Ron called out. He knew Harry was faster, so he started with a good defense.

"Stupify" Harry's spell splashed on Ron's shield, but before Ron could cast his next spell, Harry cast a weak "Lumos", dazzling his opponent.

"Stupi.." began Ron

"Expelleriamus" Harry got out just in time, it barely penetrated Ron's fading Protego, but it was enough to yank his elbow out of alignment, ruining his spell. Ron was starting to panic, as he was getting hit with spells left and right. They were all weak, but they were messing with his plans, forcing him to come up with alternatives. And while Ron was the most powerful wizard in his year, quick thinking was never his strength.

"Expell..." He began.

"Reducto" And a powerful attack spell like that caused him to panic. He dove to the side as he abandoned his disarming charm and cast another Protego. The shield came out wobbly, but the reducto missed – it was aimed at the wall behind him, where it sent pebble sized rocks spraying into Ron's back.

Ron was just recovering when Harry's next stupify managed to leak through his sloppy shield. Ron staggered, blinking, as his arm went tingly.

"Stupify"

And Ron went down.

"Terry, please revive Ron." Harry turned to the rest of the class. "Ron is a more powerful wizard than me, but he wasn't able to defend against a good spellchain. I was able to cast spells faster, and the spells didn't just hammer at his protego. I chose spells that would exploit weaknesses in his defenses. A Protego can't stop a Lumos, or a Reducto that's not aimed at him (but at the wall behind him). And as Ron got more and more flustered, his spells got weaker and weaker, until I could get in a pair of stunners."

"Lets split off into pairs and work on Stupify-Lumos-Stupify chains."

*Meta*Meta*

"Professor? Harry walked up to Filius. Charms had just let out, and Harry had hung back until all the other students had filed out. "Would it be possible for me to get some tutoring?"

The diminutive professor smiled, "I am very happy to say that you are performing at grade level, if not slightly above, so I don't think you need any tutoring. I am very proud of your accomplishment. It took a lot of hard work, but it paid off in the end!"

"Uhm. thanks." Harry smiled. He wasn't used to praise, except the sort that Snape specialized in (which involved Snape informing you that you were slightly less stupid than he had expected). "But I was hoping to get maybe advanced tutoring? If that would be possible?"

Flitwick beamed with pride, "Why, your thirst for learning does you proud! There is no official 'advanced tutoring' program at Hogwarts, but I would not at all be surprised if some of the older students wouldn't be willing to do so. Though they might charge a fee. You could try Eddie Carmichael - he's a year ahead of you, and he enjoys helping other students."

"Hmm" Harry nodded his thanks "I'll think about it - I'm not certain I can afford to spend that much". He knew Eddie - it was not that he enjoyed helping others, it was that he liked showing off. '_Maybe I can ask Hermione… no, that would be weird.'_

"If you have any questions about the material that we are learning in class, or want to discuss advanced applications of some of the spells, come to my office hours." offered Flitwick.

Harry's eyes lit up, "Yeah, that would be great!" and he almost bounced on his way out of class.

*Meta*Meta*

"How was the the internship?" Harry asked, sliding into Ravenclaw table next to Hermione at dinner.

"Actually, it was a mix of exciting and boring. It is really cool that I will actually be working in the Department of Mysteries, but what I will be doing is really not so exciting - mostly transcribing old records into the new system." Hermione sighed, "I guess I'm making good contacts for when I apply for an actual job."

"Wait - you're working in the Department of Mysteries? Did you get to see any cool super secret research? Like the Firebolt 2100?" Terry asked, leaning across Harry and a third year.

"Yes, I am working in DOM" Hermione sighed in exasperation, "And no, I didn't see anything secret - I'm just doing secretarial work." she took a sip of her pumpkin juice and smiled, "and if I DID see something 'super secret', I wouldn't be able to tell you about it, now would I?"

Harry paused with his fork halfway to his mouth and gave his girlfriend a searching look.

"What? I told you, I didn't see anything."

"Right." Harry finished taking his bite.

*Meta*Meta*

"Hello, Harry. It's been a while. You are looking well" Lupin held out his hand for Harry to shake. "Can we go talk out by the lake? It's a nice day, and that will give us some privacy."

"Sure." Harry was meeting with Remus on sunday, as planned. "So what do you want to know?" Even with a warming charm, the area around the lake was chilly, and the only other students outside were a team of Hufflepuffs noisily building a giant snowman. Remus had an odd idea of 'nice day'.

"First off, I would like to know what you have seen in your visions, and how often they happen. We will then take it from there."

"Ok." Harry sat down on a rock facing the lake while Remus leaned against a nearby tree. It was easier to talk about this when not looking at anybody. "The first one happened over the summer…" he recounted the visions. All of them involved murders, some rather gruesome ones, and it took Harry a while to force himself to recall what he had seen.

"In all these visions, you are seeing the world through Voldemort's eyes, or the eyes of his snake, correct?" Lupin jotted it down, "I am trying to to see if there is a common theme to the visions, or at least something that triggers them, so that we can block them out."

"Yeah, it's always You-know.. Voldemort's point of view. And he's always hurting somebody. Though for all I know, he spends all his days doing that."

"Can you tell how he feels during these episodes?" Remus asked gently.

"Yeah, he's happy. He enjoys hurting people." Harry kicked a chunk of ice with his foot. He didn't really question why he got stuck with visions of a mass murderer going through his head. Harry was used to get the shit-end of the stick in the muggle world. Why should the wizarding world be any different?

"I think I know something that can help. It is a skill called occlumency, and it helps block off your mind from outside influences. I can teach it to you. It is a tricky discipline, but I think you have the right mindset to master it. We can start the lessons next week, if that is ok with you?"

"Yeah, ok." Harry wasn't thrilled with learning another skill, but if it worked to keep the nightmares away, it was worth it.

Remus put a hand on Harry's back. "I actually have something else that I want to talk to you about" Harry looked up as remus paused, "Do you know who Sirius Black is?"

"Yeah - he was the guy who escaped from Azkaban a few years ago. The ministry in its infinite wisdom stationed dementors around Hogwarts to to keep the students safe. Because Dementors had done such a great job of keeping him IN Azkaban in the first place."

Remus nodded "The reason I bring him up is because of WHY he was in Azkaban - he had been convicted of murdering Peter Pettigrew and a dozen muggle witnesses, as well as selling out your parents to Voldemort. But last spring, I received a letter from him, claiming that he was innocent of the charges, and that Peter had actually murdered the muggles and framed him before going into hiding for ten years. Now, on the face of it, this was a rather ludicrous statement, but in Sirius' letter, he claimed to have found Peter." Remus scowled. "Unfortunately, he claimed to have promptly killed Peter in revenge."

Harry looked puzzled, "I don't see what this has to do with my visions of Voldemort."

"Nothing - It has to do with you. But let me finish. So I spent last year verifying Sirius' claims - I found the body that he claimed was Peter and paid to have it identified. It was indeed Peter, and I was even able to trace where he had been hiding for the past decade. Unfortunately, with Peter dead, there is no way to prove Sirius' claims to the level required by a court of law."

"Why this is relevant to you is that Sirius is your godfather, and he and I were both friends with your father in school."

"WHAT? How come you never mentioned this before? Like when you were teaching here?"

Remus leaned back, looking worn and threadbare, "As a teacher, I did not want there to be accusations of favoritism. And otherwise… I did not think that you would be interested in hearing an old man's ramblings."

Harry looked critically at Remus: he looked rather unimpressive, almost grey, but he was by no means an old man. Remus sighed, "also, there are.. other reason's I have kept my distance"

"Like the fact that you're a werewolf?" Harry remembered the rumors that had swirled around school at the end of third year.

"Yes, like that. And trying to prevent my inner wolf from taking over is part of why I had to learn occlumency in the first place.. But now… If Sirius' claims are true, and I am pretty well convinced that they are, there is no reason for you not to make contact with Sirius, and he very much would like to meet you."

"Oookay." Harry replied slowly, thinking the it over. Remus had just turned much of his world on its ear. "I… I would like to have a few days to think about it, if you don't mind."

"Not at all." Remus stood up "I will drop by next sunday, and we can talk some more about Sirius after we finish with the lessons" and with a nod he walked off.

Remus was halfway to Hogwarts when Harry changed his mind. "Prof. Lupin?" Harry called out, "I would like to meet Sirius."

"Great. I will arrange a meeting. I 'll let you know when and where at our first occlumency lesson."

*Meta*Meta*

"What I don't understand is why Prof. Lupin never mentioned any of this third year!" Harry was sitting with Hermione on the astronomy tower, 'star gazing'. Sort of. They were cuddled together under a blanket that had been charmed for warmth, and it was very cozy.

Hermione leaned her head on Harry's shoulder. "We studied Werewolves in DADA third year. Apparently, even in human form, they get some wolf traits. While wolves are very loyal to the pack they grew up with, they are wild animals, and they can't really make new friends as adults. I imagine that Mr Lupin is not very good at being social. Especially if he is trying to repress his wolfish nature." She slapped away a hand that was getting too adventurous.

"Huh." Harry mulled that over, "Poor guy. There are some very nice aspects to being social." Harry turned to kiss his girlfriend.

"Harry.." Hermione said ambivalently, pulling away slightly - "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but… I was cataloguing the the prophecies at the DoM, and I cam across one with your name on it." Hermione bit her lip.

"Oh. okay" Harry was bemused , "So what does it say?"

"I don't know - I haven't seen the actual prophecy. I don't even know where they store them. I just saw a reference to it."

"Do you think the Unspeakable would let me see it if I asked? Since it's about me?"

"I..don't think that's a good idea, Harry. I'm not supposed to have told you about it, or anything else that I see in the Department of Mysteries."

"I can claim I heard about it from somebody else?"

"Who? Dumbledore maybe or Trelawney? The Unspeakable aren't stupid. I'll get fired or worse!"

"Ok, ok, don't get all worked up. I won't ask." Hermione relaxed at Harry's assurances, "But if you have the chance, see if you can see what it says. Obviously it's not that big a deal - I've lived my whole life not even knowing that it existed, but it would be cool to know what's written in there."


	6. Chapter 5

One reviewer asked what I meant about Ron being a 'powerful' my take on the HP 'verse, some wizrds have a stronger magic than others. their spells have a stronger effect. That does not mean that they are _better_ wizards: it doesn't mean that their spells are more effective, necessarily. For example, Imagine a guy who's really good shape - will it give him an advantage in playing a musical instrument? If he's playing the drums, yes. The flute, not so much.

In my story, Ron has a lot of power, but he's lacking in planning and finesse, though that might change as he trains more. In terms of dueling, the best duelists in the DA are: Harry, Neville, Ron, Hermione and Terry (in that order), though they are close enough in skill so that victory for the stronger dualist is not guaranteed.

**START**

"Are you certain this is a good idea? He was in Azkaban - no matter who he was before, that's going to change a person." Hermione worried, holding tight to Harry's arm. "Maybe you should talk to Prof. Flitwick about this."

"I don't know about that. Besides, Prof. Lupin will be there" Harry was going to go meet Sirius that afternoon. Harry had been spending a fair bit of time with the diminutive teacher: he had taken him up on his offer of coming by during office hours for a more in depth discussion of the material (And boy had it made a difference). But he was still a teacher, and this was personal.

It was a Hogsmead weekend, and Harry had agreed to meet Sirius at Remus's room at the Three Broomsticks. "Nothing will happen. I know you want to be there, but he is technically a fugitive, so he wants to keep a low profile."_ 'It's nice having __somebody__ worry about you.'_ Harry mused. And the fact that Hermione was unconsciously pressing his arm to her chest was also pleasant. If distracting. Very distracting.

"What if he really is a supporter of You-Know-Who?" Hermione fussed.

Harry didn't bother to reply - they had been over all this before. "I'll see you in a bit. An hour tops." Harry waved as he went into the pub while Hermione continued on her way to the bookstore.

Harry made his way up the stairs and to the rooms on the second floor. "Hello, Harry" Remus opened the door, "Sirius.." He showed the teen into the small room. Sitting on the bed was a haggard looking man. His hair looked like it had just been trimmed, and he was dressed in clean (if worn) clothes that did not fit him well. But his cheeks were hollow, and there were black circles under his eyes. When Harry stepped into the room, a tentative smile broke out on his face.

"Harry.. it is nice to meet you, as an adult. The last time I saw you, you were a baby…" Sirius began "You know, back in school your father, Remus and I were close friends, why we used to get into all sorts of trouble. I remember when, in fourth year we managed to charm the Fat Lady so that she could only croak. The look on her face!" Sirius paused, "Do you have friends in school?"

"Yes, I have a couple of close friends, and a few others that I get along with well enough."

"Good, good. Friends can keep you sane.. Is one of them the witch you walked up to the pub with? Oho! a girlfriend!" Sirius crowed, He leaned in conspiratorially, "You know about the Shrieking Shack, right?"

Harry blushed and stammered, "We're not like that!"

"Oh, that's fine, there's no need to rush, but keep up the charms on it, so that it's available if you want it."

"Charms?"

"The Shrieking Charms. Remus was the one who came up with them. This was back when your dad was starting to get interested in Lilly. So we cast them on the shack as a 'birthday present'."

"Not that they ever used it," Remus quickly interrupted Sirius' monologue, "Your mother was a very proper young lady."

"I think the charms must have worn out, because I've never heard about them."

"Well, that's too bad. I remember some good times in there. You see, some others of us took advantage of the charms. Waste not want not, if you know what I mean." Sirius waggled his overgrown eyebrows. It was a slightly disturbing sight, but Harry found the fountain of words pouring forth from Sirius very comfortable. Here was another misfit, who had missed out on much of life. But he seemed determined to make up for it now. "So, how about I show you some of the places in London that James and I used to hang out in the summer?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea.." began Remus "We still need to practice occlumency" This was their third meeting, and Harry was showing some progress. Slow progress, but that was to be expected.

"You can work later. You can only have fun now. Besides, nobody will know that we're gone - I'll have Harry back before dinner. Come on!" Sirius stood up, "There is this really awesome muggle arcade where we spent hours playing pinball during the summer. And there is a little cheap jewelry store that you could see from the window. You can see all the muggle girls as they go in. I imagine this time of year, there's not so much to see, but in late July, whoo! And my parents hated the fact I would hang out in muggle London. They were convinced that I would be kidnapped and sold into the white-slave trade by passing muggles." Sirius grabbed Harry's arm "I can side along you there. You game?"

"Let's go!" smiled Harry.

*Meta*Meta*

"It used to be here. Right here!" Sirius said, anguished, as he looked around the street corner in confusion. The place he was pointing to was now a clothing boutique.

"I guess they closed."

Sirius nodded morosely.

"Hey, there's a comic book store over there." Harry pointed across the street, "Come on, I'll show you some of the good ones."

"I don't know.." Sirius began, "Comics were never my thing.." but he followed Harry into the store. Soon Harry was pulling out books and explaining the story-line to Sirius.

"These are comic book? They are so serious!" the older man gaped, "Wait - spiderman is married? NO! That's not right! When did he get so responsible?"

"I thought you didn't read comics?" Harry smirked.

"Well, I didn't read them _often_, but sometimes, I would buy a few. But only the good titles." Sirius replied without looking up, his nose buried in the comic.

They continued flipping through comics, earning dark looks from the fat young man behind the counter. "How about you buy something? This ain't a library," He grumbled.

Harry shrugged. He had a couple of pounds in his wallet, "Hey Sirius - how about this one?" He held up an edgy new imprint.

"No! Too dark. I don't understand why anybody would want to read something like that. Pass me that X-Men - they're always amusing." Sirius glanced at Harry's wallet. "You don't have an enchanted money pouch?"

"Um, no? I don't know what that is." Harry replied, embarrassed at his failing.

"Most people in the Wizarding world have a money pouch that is magically linked to their Gringotts vault. That way, they can pay for their purchases without having to carry around a ton of money. I remember my Dad gave me my first one when I was fourteen."

"That sounds like a muggle credit card." Harry paused for a minuted to think, "But what if somebody steals it - they can empty your vault!"

"It has a modified version of same ward as the vault - anybody other than the owner can put their hand in, but they can't pull it back out."

"Oh, that makes sense." Harry smirked, "I can just see some would=be thief walking around witha their hand jammed up to their armpit into a bag. They would have to cut the bag off."

"That would destroy the charm on the bag, and in the words of Hooknose, 'that would be unhealthy'" Sirius smirked.

"Unhealthy? And who's Hooknose?" Harry finished paying and lead the way out of the shop - the guy behind the counter had been paying too much attention to their conversation, and he didn't want to get in trouble with the Statutes of Secrecy.

"Hooknose was the family accountant. He wasn't a bad sort, for a goblin. He hated my parents almost as much as I did. And 'unhealthy' in the sense that they would have to amputate what was left of your hand." Sirius did his best imitation of a goblin smile.

"Oh. The Dursleys are aggressively muggle so no, I don't have a pouch."

As Harry glanced around the street, wondering what t0o do next, Sirius pointed to a greasy looking diner down the road,"You fancy some fish and chips?"

"Have you ever been there before?"

"Nope, but it looks good. Especially compared to Remus's chow. Can you believe he's a vegetarian now? He's getting into all this Indian food. It's not bad for a bit, but I want real honest-to-goodness greasy British fare."

"Ok, let's do it!" Harry had never been out on the town with friends before, and he was having a blast.

They took their orders to a cheap naugahyde lined cubicle. The seats were bright orange, and the table was even cheaper formica. It looked like something out of a 1950's movie. Sirius happily shoveled fries into his mouth between bites of his deep fried fish. As they sat eating, Harry happened to glance at the clock over the counter.

"Oh, shit!"

"Language, Harry." Sirius said, unexpectedly.

"Sorry. But we gotta go - I promised Hermione - that's my girlfriend - that I'd be back by dinner time. She's probably panicking."

Sirius finished his mouthful and washed it down with the rest of his orange soda. "Sounds high strung. Is she pretty?"

"Yes, to both, I guess. She's also very proper and really smart." Harry replied as Sirius paid for their meal.

"I don't think 'proper' was ever on my list of things to look for in a girl." replied Sirius as they stepped into an alley to apparate back to Hogsmead

*Meta*Meta*

"Where were you!" Hermione was beside herself. She intercepted Harry as he walked into Hogwarts, "I was so worried - I was just about to go to Flitwick and tell him that you were kidnapped by Sirius, and then I would have had to explain why you were meeting with him in the first place without telling somebody in authority and that would NOT go over well and.."

"Hermione, relax, I'm ok. I just lost track of time."

Hermione hugged Harry tightly, "I had every right to be worried! Sirius has a reputation as a criminal. Now I know you believe that he is innocent, but the courts didn't think so, and even if they were wrong, -things- happen to people in prison. They change, and I thought…"

Harry sighed in exasperation. He liked the idea of having a girlfriend, but maybe he should have read the fine print before signing on for this."Hermione, Give it a rest. I'm fine"

Hermione took a step back. "Fine. I'll see you at breakfast, then." and stormed off.

Harry sighed, '_She'll get over it'._ He headed down to the dojo to blow off some steam himself.

An hour later, Harry was in the Ravenclaw's Commonroom. It was awkward. Harry had already finished his homework, so he didn't know what to do with himself. Hermione was up in the girls dorms, and none of the other claws were willing to talk to him, outside of the DA, at least. _'I hadn't realized how much of my life has revolved around Hermione lately. What did I used to do for fun, last year?'_

But people watching had lost some of it's luster. With a sigh, Harry got up, '_Maybe I can find a book in the library._' As he made his way down from the tower, a thought popped into his head, _'I completely forgot - the twins asked me to collect their stuff!'_ Harry went back and grabbed the Sack from his luggage and then headed for the Weasley's broom closet.

It took him three tries to get the series of knocks just right. Harry sighed, _'There's a lot of junk here.'_ He started by wrestling a large metal contraption that had a picture of a dragon doodled on its side into the Ever-Expanding Sack. That was followed by an assortment of flasks, tubes and wooden stands. As Harry worked his way around the room, he found himself next to Luna's corner.

"Hmm" Harry crouched down and poked the carpet. The plush moved gently. He leaned in closer, looking to see if there was anything living in there.

"Don't get your nostril hairs tangled in there!"

"YI-YI-YI!" Harry leaped straight up is surprise.

"Or it will be really painful when they get yanked out as you leap up." finished Luna.

"What are you doing here?" asked Harry.

Luna cocked her head to the side and gave him a look, to see if she could spot any of the Nargles that were obviously stealing Harry thoughts. "That is my hot chocolate still you were ogling. A better question would be what are YOU doing here?"

"I was taking the twin's stuff."

"Ooh. Living dangerously, are we?"

"No" Harry rolled his eyes, "I mean I'm collecting it to send to them. They asked for it."

"They often ask for it, but nobody's willing to mess with them anyways. They have a mean streak."

"But you were renting space from them!" countered Harry. He realized that he had somehow gotten off topic, but he wasn't certain how it had happened.

"So I am in a position to know. Why were you peeping at my carpet?" Luna asked. "Are you a peeping Harry?"

Harry ignored the second half of the question, as he wasn't certain how to answer it. "I was checking to see if there were any 'foot-fodder' worms living in the plush. But there aren't any worms in there!"

"Of course not" scoffed Luna, "'futfodder worms' is the name of the spell I used to animate the carpet. Some Ravenclaw you are - you didn't ask for a definition of the terminology that you didn't know!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever" Harry turned away, blushing in embarrassment. He went back to collecting the Weasley's equipment and dropping it into the Sack piece by piece. As soon as anything he popped in passed through the mouth of the Sack, the built in cushioning charms slowed the pieces fall, landing them gently inside the huge interior. It was very nice piece of Magic, and Harry considered getting one himself. If it wasn't too expensive.

Luna stood and watched.

Harry became more and more self conscious, "What?" He finally stood up, and faced the blond girl.

"Speaking of terms that need to be defined, what exactly is our relationship?"

"I don't know!" Harry snarled, "You're the one who likes making stuff up and not letting anybody else know what you're thinking." Luna's shoulders dropped. she looked like she was about to turn around and slink away. "But, um.." Harry continued quickly, holding out a hand as if to physically hold Luna from leaving, "I would like to be friends, now. You know?"

A tentative smile slipped across Luna's face. "Yeah. Ok." She held out her hand to shake, "Friends?"

"Friends" Harry shook her hand.

Luna smiled, "I'll see you around," and skipped out of the broom closet.

*Meta*Meta*

It wasn't until breakfast time the next day that Harry managed to catch Hermione. So he had had plenty of time to go over their last conversation. And he had come to a conclusion: _'Just because I'm right doesn't mean I need to say it._' Harry was annoyed with himself. He thought he had learned to pay attention to what other people were thinking - it was a life skill for living with the Dursley's after all. "Uh, Hi, Hermione?" Harry sat down next to his girlfriend. "Um, I'm sorry for being a little rude yesterday. I hadn't realized that you would worry so much." Actually, having anybody worry about him at all was a new experience. He wasn't certain if he liked it.

Hermione smiled, "And I'm sorry for blowing up like that. I was just really worried. We should work out some way of communicating, so that something like this doesn't happen again."

"I.. well ok" Harry felt an invisible leash settling around his shoulders. '_I wonder if I'll end up regretting this?'_

"Great! we can work on setting up a Protean charm for just the two of us after class."

'_That's actually not a bad idea',_ Harry nodded, "so, what will we use? I don't want to enchant another Sickle - what if we sent the message on the wrong one.

Hermione blushed, "HowAboutAPairOfRings?" she said all in one breath.

Harry's brain froze. "I think that won't work - it will be really hard to read the message" he quickly countered.

"Oh, yeah, you're right" Hermione replied, assiduously not looking at Harry as she continued to blush.

"How about a medallion? - I bought one to use for the enhancement runes, but I can use the back side for the Protean charm. And I can get you one to match"

"Ok!" Hermione looked up, a beatific smile on her face.

*Meta*Meta*

Harry hunched over the strip of leather, slowly carving the runes into the metal plate on the leather arm band that he had bought. He was able to tune out the drone of Binns voice as the ghost professor continued to talk about a goblin something or other. Only half the class had even bothered to show up, and they were either napping or doing homework for other classes, so this was as private a place to work as any at Hogwarts. '_Almost done' _Harry had finished two of the five charms he was planning to make (Five was the minimum required, and Harry figured that would be plenty).

Harry quickly glanced up to see if Binns was paying attention. No. the ghost was still talking to the blackboard, just like every other class. '_It's a good thing he's a ghost. If he had a real __body__, his nose would be smearing his chalkings'._

Harry held up the charm. It looked good. Unfortunately, the next class was herbology. He couldn't slack there, yet it was just as boring. '_At least Charms is going well this year.' _Harry liked Flitwick, and the class was obviously useful, so he exerted himself there. Transfiguration was also interesting, but McGonogall was such a dull old bat that he never really warmed to the subject.

*Meta*Meta*

Harry stretched as he sat down in the DADA classroom. '_Time for another lecture on how to be polite to creatures that want to eat your soul' _Harry considered his options. Sleeping was out - Umbridge wasn't that oblivious. Besides, he was well rested: the occlumency lessons had him sleeping better. He wasn't certain if the occlumency actually blocked anything, or if it was just the reassurance that it would - sort of a placebo effect. Whatever it was, he hadn't had any nightmares in a couple of weeks.

Harry pulled out his notebook. Doodling or passing notes to Hermione it was.

"Hello class!" the pink toad pronounced. And those were the last words that Harry paid attention to for the next hour. Instead, he tried to come up with configurations to try in DA: How many wizards to a team. Who should cast defensive spell, who should cast offensive. Along with that, there was a list of initials of wizards and witches that were particularly good at one spell or another.

"I am glad to see that SOMEBODY is taking notes" Harry's head jerked up as he saw Umbridge approaching his table. "Hem. Hem. When I am talking, it would be in your best interests to take down what I say. I am NOT talking just to to hear the sound of my own voice, after all."

'_She's not?' _Harry quickly whisked the DA notes under the parchment with the lecture notes from the last class. '_I hope she doesn't read this.'_

Umbridge stopped next to Harry and possessively placed a palm on his shoulder, "Harry here is busy taking good notes. I would like the rest of you toe emulate his example. Starting tomorrow, I will be collecting your class notes to grade."

Several of the students glared daggers at Harry.

*Meta*Meta*

"Harry! Harry! Guess what" came Sirius' tinny voice from the Two Way mirror that Harry was holding. Sirius had given it to him as an early Christmas present. In March. It was pretty obvious that Sirius was going stir crazy hiding out at Remus' pad and needed to talk to somebody. How he had survived over a decade of prison was a mystery to Harry.

"Harry, I spoke to Dumbledore, and he's going to try to have the charges against me cleared!" Seeing a gaunt middle-aged man bouncing like a teenager was a disturbing sight. But whenever the two of them spoke, the same thing happened - within a few minutes of talking, the morose, care-worn adult quickly rolled back to a carefree teenager. "He say's he can't promise anything, but the fact that he believes me is a HUGE load off of my mind. Now at least I am on the road to normalcy. He even invited me to a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, so I'll be able to talk to some of my old friends!"

"Keep it down!" Harry shushed, "I'm talking to you in the boy's loo."

"TMI!" crowed Sirius, "Though it could be worse - if you were in a broom closet, passers-by might think I was a girl!"

Harry sighed and smiled in bemusement '_This so __weird__ - I'm the more mature one in this conversation'_. "What's the Order of the Phoenix?"

"It's the group that Dumbledore founded to fight Voldemort, last time around. Me and Remus and James joined up right out of Hogwarts. Your mom was a member too. Albus restarted it to fight him again. According to Remus, they're mostly trying to trace who's supporting Voldemort - Albus is certain that he has started minting new Death Eaters. And they're also standing guard over something in the Department of Mysteries. Remus won't say what. He claims that I have developed verbal diarrhea and can't keep a secret anymore. Well, he should try not talking to anybody for a decade!"

"Ok, ok!" Harry laughed, "I didn't accuse you of anything! Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you're going to be hanging out with your old friends, because I'm going to have to take a rain-check on hitting the arcade" Harry fingered the portkey that Sirius had owled him that morning, "Hermione wants to go out to Hogsmead Saturday, and as much as I hate to say it, I got to spend Sunday revising for my OWLS." Harry conveniently forgot to mention that Hermione had been on his case to study more since the start of the semester, and that taking her out was his way of trying to mollify her: first a date, then a study session. And afterward? Who knew how the evening would end... Harry smiled to himself.

"Well, I guess that's the way it goes when you have a girlfriend," sighed Sirius, "At least a girlfriend you're serious about. I never had to worry about that - most of the girls I dated were one night stands. Incidentally, how far have you gotten? You guys have sex yet?"

"Urk!" Harry staggered back, almost falling into the toilet, "SHH!" He quickly stepped onto the lid of the toilet and looked over the top of the stall - the bathroom was still empty. This bathroom was across the hall from Moaning Myrtle's haunt, so people tended to avoid the both of them. Myrtle mostly stayed in the girls' loo, but there were rumors that she was a bit of a peeping tom, so for they boy's toilet, unless you were real desperate, you kept on walking. "And no. Not that I would mind being, um, more physical, but she's doesn't want to do anything more than kiss." Harry shrugged, "I guess I'm fine with that." He was happy just to have such a cool girlfriend - not only was she smart, but dignified and poised. Even the Dursleys would be hard pressed to find anything wrong with her.

"Yeah, well if you want some advice on that, you know that Prof. Black's door is always open"

"Uhm, you mean you'd be willing to talk about sex? What a surprise" Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well, since you brought it up, the best way to.." began Sirius, blasting ahead on a full head of steam.

"I gotta go. I'll catch you later!" Harry waved and covered the mirror with a cloth, shutting down the communication spell.

*Meta*Meta*

"Hermione, relax." Harry repeated for the twenty third time. The happy couple were in the Three Broomsticks, sharing a goblin float (despite the name, Rosmerta reassured Harry that there were no goblin or goblin parts in the beverage) "try the ice cream - it's surprisingly good." A goblin float was made from pumpkin ice cream, floating in butterbeer.

Hermione smiled and took a sip, "Sorry I'm bad company. I just keep thinking of the OWLs. We haven't spent anywhere enough time prepping for them. I think I'm going to work late at the Ministry this week, and then I'll slack off so that I can revise my notes."

"Hermione, I am an expert on slacking off, and I have to say, studying your ass off does NOT count as slacking."

"Language" Hermione tried to keep a smile from slipping out at the compliment. "And I think you sell yourself short. You work plenty hard. Maybe not as much as me, but I'll freely admit that I get a little carried away when it comes to studying."

Harry paused and his brows furrowed, "Huh. I guess I have been working hard this year. How did that happen. It must be your good influence" Hermione blushed and looked down at the table, "No, seriously - I used to spend all my time hanging out with Draco and his loser squad. I had to pull it together last year, for that crazy tournament, but if I wasn't spending all my time with you, I'm certain that this year I would have gone back to slacking."

"I don't know about that," Hermione was blushing furiously as she drew circles on the table with a little spilled butterbeer. "And besides, Goyle isn't a loser."

"Yeah, he really pulled it together, but you have to admit, he's no genius."

Hermione nodded. In the DA, Goyle worked hard, but his personal best was barely average. "Yeah, he really wants to impress Hannah."

"See, I told you, the love of a good woman can turn a guy around."

"Love?" stammered Hermione.

"Um.." Harry's brain ground to a halt as he realized what he had said, and he started to panic, _'ok, what do I say?' _"Um.. Yeah. Love, as in 'I love you'." he managed to stammer out.

Hermione quickly got up and pulled Harry into a hug. After several moments, she pulled her chair around so that it was on the same side of the table as Harry's. That way she could lean into him as she sat.

*Meta*Meta*

It was Wednesday, and Harry was bored. He had gotten so used to spending all his free time with Hermione, either studying, or prepping for the DA or just snuggling. So much so that he was at a loss for what to do while she was getting ahead on her work at the Department of Mysteries. '_I guess I could just start revising for the OWLs on my own'. _He half heartedly picked up his notes and flipped through them. '_Or maybe I'll wait.'_

He got up and went down to the dojo.

"Hey, Nev. What brings you here at this hour?" Harry was surprised to find the Gryffindor boy at the dojo - they usually worked out in the morning.

"Not much. I just got to work off some steam."

Harry quirked an eyebrow. "Something happen?"

"Draco and his inquisitorial squad happened. They have been harassing me and the other Gryffindors all week. They stop us in the hallways demanding to know where we are going. Today they even came by our dorms, demanding to inspect our stuff for contraband. I called in McGonagall, and she said she'll talk to Umbridge, but I don't know what she can do. That fat toad has complete control over Hogwarts."

Harry nodded. "Want to spar?"

"Aren't you supposed to be with Hermione right now?" asked Neville.

"There's no 'supposed to'. I like hanging out with her."

"Uh, huh. And she arranges your schedule, and if you don't show up on time, she gets huffy."

"Well… " Harry was at a loss for words.

Neville laughed, "Dude, I'm just having you on. If you're happy, that's all that matters."

"Yeah." Harry nodded his thanks, "Hermione's at work, at her internship"

"And this is how you spend your evening as a bachelor? If this were a movie, we'd be sneaking out to Hogsmead for butterbeers."

"You want to do that? Really?" Harry boggled.

"Well, no." Neville backpedaled quickly. He was notorious for not liking to break the rules, "but if this was a story about us, that's what would happen next."

"Yeah. Maybe. Though if somebody was going to make my life into a movie, they would have to make it a whole hell of a lot more exciting." Harry paused and clutched his chest, "Excuse me" He pulled out the medallion that he and Hermione had charmed. He read the small inscription that was transmitted from Hermione's linked medallion.

"OH, SHIT!"

"What's wrong?" Neville crowded towards Harry. Harry looked like he wanted to run, but wasn't certain where to go.

"I just got a message from Hermione - there are Death Eaters breaking into the Department of Mysteries. She's trapped." Harry grabbed his robes and threw them on over his gi. "I have to go help her!" he turned to run out the door.

"Wait! I'll come with you. Better yet, I'll call the DA. We'll all go."

Harry nodded. He doubted anybody would come - people didn't do that sort of thing for him. But it was worth a shot, "Tell them to meet us at the Whomping Willow"

"Ok. How are we getting to London?" Neville asked as he finished with his enchanted Sickle.

"I have a port key from Siri… from a friend.

"Let's do it." The two friends ran out the door.

*Meta*Meta*

When they reached the Whomping Willow, they found Luna and Terry already there. "What's going on? Has Umbridge discovered us? Neville said it was an emergency."

"Worse - Hermione is being chased through the Department of Mysteries by Death Eaters!" Harry blurted, "I'm going to go help her!"

"Who.. I'm not certain if we can.." began Terry.

"Wherever you go, I'll follow" Luna interrupted.

"I'm in," added Collin. He was still out of breath from having run up. "Let's wait a minute before going, though: Ron's on his way also - he just had trouble finding his shoes."

Harry nodded, "ok. I just thought of something. Give me a minute while we wait." He stepped off to one side and pulled out the Two Way Mirror.

"Sirius! Wake up. Hey, Sirius! I need help here!"

"What's up, pronglet?" came the voice from the other side.

"Hermione is hiding from Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries. I need your help to rescue her," Harry got out all in one breath, keeping an eye on his friends at the same time - they didn't know about Sirius, and now was not the time to explain. "I'll meet you there."

"Hey, wait - don't.."

"I gotta go!" Harry interrupted as Ron ran up. He put the cloth over the mirror and shoved it back into his pocket.

"Who was that?" asked Terry.

"Backup. Let's go!" Harry replied anxiously.

The teens ran through the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, until they were outside the Hogwarts wards. "Ok, everybody, hold hands. I'm activating the portkey."

"Um, wait - where will that take us?" asked Terry.

"Central London - about two blocks from the Ministry. We'll have to hoof it from there!"_ 'I hope Hermione manages to hold out until then.'_ "Ok, Let's go."

and the world spun around them.


	7. Chapter 6

"Are you certain this is the right way?" Collin asked, as the the DA rescuers crowded into the phone booth.

"It's how I went into the Ministry building over the summer. It should work!" Harry activated the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, following the prompts from the telephone.

The teens staggered as the call box spin around and dropped. They found themselves dumped unceremoniously into the Ministry Atrium. As they regained their feet, there was a warble from Harry's Two Way Mirror.

"Yes?"

"Harry! I flooed Dumbledore, and we're going to go check out the Ministry of Magic. You stay where you are."

"I'm already at the Ministry. I'll see you when you get here."

"Wait! Don't do anything rash!" Sirius started when Harry tied the cloth tightly around the mirror. _'I can't take this with me - what if it __squawks__ when I am trying to __sneak__ past some Death Eaters?'_ With the cloth back on tightly, Harry looked around for a good place to leave the mirror, finally deciding on a shelf next to where the security guard was supposed to be.

"Um, guys, wands out. and stay under cover. There's supposed to be a security guard here."

The Ravenclaws nodded in understanding. "You think he might have joined You Know Who?" asked Ron.

"Maybe, maybe not. But it definitely means the DE's have come through here." Terry replied as he looked at the directory and map printed on the wall. "You said Hermione is in the Department of Mysteries? That's one level down."

"Let's go. Stay in pairs. Ron, you're covering me. Next Luna and Collin, then Nev and Terry are rear guard." They raced for the stairs. _'I wish I had thought to bring some potions or something! I ran out like an idiot with just the clothes on my back!'_

As they made their way down, all was quiet. The silence was unnerving. Harry and Ron kept glancing left and right, and they advanced much more slowly than Harry wished. But he had watched enough muggle war movies over the the Dursley's shoulders to know that you only advanced when you had somebody ready to cover you. All of the teens were anxious enough to go along with Harry's crawlingly slow advance, though only Ron bothered to crouch down the way Harry did.

As they were crossing what must have been the waiting room at the bottom of the stairs (it had several plush couches, small tables laden with magazines, and a full tea service), Neville called out "Stupify!"

The red light flashed towards a side door, narrowly missing a masked Death Eater who ducked behind a statue before returning fire.

"Run!" Collin bolted for cover, heading for the door across the room.

"Stupify!" Harry cast from behind a desk, "get under cover!"

But it was too late - the other teens had panicked and were racing for the doors as the Death Eater sent curses after them. '_Shit!' _Harry swore under his breath as he started a spell chain, "Protego lumos, reducto" As the half blind Death Eater staggered out of the way of the shrapnel spraying from the reducto'ed wall, Harry edged so that he was between him and the door the others had fled through. _'I have got to follow them. If we get separated, we're history' _Harry was starting to panic. This wasn't working the way I should have. His followers weren't following, and they would all end up dead if another Death Eater showed up!

The Death Eater cast a half-hearted curse at Harry as he got his bearings.

"Protego, accio, lumos" Harry cast in quick succession as suppressive fire to give him time to run after his classmates. Behind him the air was filled with papers that he had accio'd up off of the desks, and was illuminated by strobes of light.

The Death eater wasn't prepared for that sort of assault, and batted away at the papers as he tried to see what was going on. Harry was able to get to the exit before he could regain his composure.

Harry found himself in an empty circular room, with a dozen doors all around the periphery. As he slammed the door shut behind him and Colloportus'ed it, the entire room spun around. "What the.."

"I think the rooms just switched places" replied Neville as he fixed his shoe, which had been coated in a fast setting glue - possibly something that had been knocked off of a desk. He was the only one in the room. "Everybody else ran ahead. I'm not certain which door they went through."

The doorknob behind them rattled.

"Shit, this way! We need cover!" Harry dragged Neville through a door on his left. They found themselves in a room filled with clocks of all kinds. Grandfather clocks, wall clocks, hour glasses and more. Harry ducked behind a desk, his wand aimed over the top at the door. Neville took up a position next to him._ 'How are we going to find Hermione this way?'_ Harry glanced at Neville, "Nev, you cover the door, I'm going to see if there are any other exits." He whispered.

Neville nodded, not taking his eyes off the door that they had just come through. His eyes started to itch, because he was too scared to even blink.

Harry quietly moved along the wall, glancing into the first open door way. "_It's an office' . _He scanned the area quickly - it was a small room, with just enough space for a desk and a bookshelf. He ducked back out and went to the next door. It was closed.

"Colloportus" He whispered, locking it, '_I'll check it later.'_ He was checking the next office - a slightly messier version of the other- when two things happened at once.

First was that Harry saw a flash of motion in the office - somebody was behind the desk!

At the same time, the door that Neville was watching flung itself open with a bang. Harry whirled around and ducked for cover just as somebody jumped up from behind the desk.

Harry threw himself bodily out of the office as Neville cast a banisher out through the empty doorway.

As Harry picked himself up onto his knees, Hermione latched onto him. "Thank god it's you!" she was shivering with shock.

Spells started to fly into the room, shattering desks and throwing papers into the air.

"Neville! This way!" Harry cast a reducto out the door as he stepped into another room, one filled with shelves and dragged Hermione with him.

"Hermione, pull yourself together! I need help!" He was casting spells through the doorway, so that Neville could run and join them.

Hermione nodded, trying to gather herself. She tentatively cast a stunner through the doorway. That first spell was very dim, barely visible. Hermione took a deep breath and spell chained a series of stunners. Each successive spell was brighter and stronger than the one before, as Hermione regained her composure.

As Neville burst through the doorway, they saw several more Death Eaters enter the Time Room, including a crazed looking woman who must have been Belatrix Lestrange.

Accompanied by Voldemort himself.

"Oh, shit! Run" Harry and Neville took off into the room with the shelves.

"Wait!" Hermione whispered, but followed Harry. The two of them found a spot to hide behind some boxes where the shelves were being rearranged.

"Damn!" Hermione swore for the first time that Harry had ever heard. "There is no other exit from this room" she whispered. "This is the Hall of Prophecies!"

There was a faint crash from some other room, followed by screams, and another crash. Hermione took Harry's hand and squeezed hard. She was still shivering slightly.

Harry gave her a quick hug and then peered over the top of the crate that they were hiding behind. He couldn't tell where Neville had gotten to. Looking down the isle, he could see some motion through the cracks between the shelves. The room was dark, so the only reason he could see that was because the intruders were carrying a light with them. Harry tapped Hermione's shoulder and pointed. She squinted for a moment and then nodded.

They crouched and watched. They could hear some conversation, but it was too soft for them to make it out. When nothing else happened, Harry's eyebrows scrunched up, and he looked around nervously.

He tugged at Hermione's sleeve and motioned for her to follow him."It's too quiet. It's a trap" he mouthed into her ear.

Still crouching low, he turned down one of the aisles and slowly made his way along, feeling his way in the dark. The two teens were half way down when there was a quiet noise from just in front of them. Harry barely made out a blob of greater darkness in the gloom ahead as he lunged forward, knocking a wand aside with his left hand as he slammed the elbow of his wand arm into somebody's chest. At the same time, Hermione silently cast Muffliato.

'_I hope this isn't Neville.' _Harry palmed them in the face with with his left hand. He needed to incapacitate this person fast and quiet, or the other Death Eaters would come running. That meant no spells.

As his sneaking opponent staggered back, Harry continued the pressure, levering up their wand hand with his own wand arm as he shoved their head towards the floor. The person hit the ground with a quiet "oof". '_He's too big to be Neville'._ Harry kneed his opponent in the face. As the Death Eater toppled, Harry slammed the heel of his hand into the man's brow ridge, and then harder, into his temple, and he slumped down.

""Incarcerous" whispered Hermione. The spell went off without any revealing flash off light.

Harry nodded and mouthed into Hermione's ear "thanks for the Muffliato – that was quick thinking!" Hermione swelled at the praise before pulling Harry toward the door.

The two teens were almost to the exit when they heard a scuffle from the next aisle over, followed by a cackling laugh. Harry and Hermione ducked down to look through a crack between the shelves.

"Ah, I see you have flushed out one of the rats." Voldemort preened as a large man dragged Neville over to him. "Good work, McNair. As soon as Goyle find the others we can get on with opening the prophecy".

"I can get it for you now." said one of the Death eaters in a whiny voice.

"No, fool. We stay here, so that the little Hogwarts rats don't realize that a snake is hunting them."

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other. It was only a matter of a few minutes before their would-be assailant (Goyle Senior?) was missed. And when that happened… Harry looked at Neville, half stunned in McNair's grip. "Rennervate Neville" Harry mouthed into Hermione's ear.

Hermione glanced at Harry as she realized that he most likely meant to do something foolish and dangerous. Her lips thinned as she nodded her acknowledgment.

"Accio shelves!" Harry yelled, and gave a yank with his wand. At the same time, Hermione cast "Rennervate!" on Neville. The other boy staggered up and scrambled away as McNair tried to avoid the falling shelves. As the shelves toppled, the prophecy spheres shattered, producing mist figures speaking unintelligibly. Under cover of all this confusion, Neville came racing out. As he did, Harry and Hermione turned to run after him. The were almost to the door when Harry felt something trip him. He hit the floor and rolled off to one side. Unfortunately, his instincts played him false this time and he slammed into a desk, hard enough to jar his wand from his hand. As he scrambled to retrieve his weapon, a Death Eater raced towards him.

"Stupify!"

The Death Eater dropped as Hermione rose from her crouch. Only to duck back down as a green killing curse narrowly missed her.

"Stupify!" Neville cast at the doorway as Harry staggered up. And with Hermione guiding him by the shoulder of his robe, managed to make it to the circular room without getting hit by any other spells.

"Which way?" He gasped.

Hermione looked around, "I don't know which door goes where."

There was a crashing sound, followed by a yell and the sound of spell fire. "That came from over here! Cover me." Harry opened the door before Hermione could protest. He glanced into the room quickly - a masked Death Eater was trying to circle around a tank filled what looked like floating brains with tentacles to get at Luna and Collin. Both parties were able to see each other faintly through the murky liquid. Luna was determinedly keeping him at bay. She had an unusually focused, angry expression as she quickly pelted spell after spell at her attacker. Collin was holding his arm, and not doing much casting.

"Harry!" Hissed Hermione - the door they had just come from was starting to open. Hermione cast another sticking spell on it, but it would only buy them seconds. Neville crouched down behind a plinth with a .. something.. on it, ready to spell anybody that came through

"Reducto!" Harry burst into the brain room. The Death Eater caught a glimpse of Harry out of the corner of his eye and started to dodge, but the spell wasn't aimed at him.

Harry's reducto sent liquid, brains and shards of glass flying at the Death Eater. One of the brains latched onto his arm, causing him to scream in pain.

Harry glanced around the room. "This way" he led the way to the only other door. Hermione spell-locked the door behind them as Neville assisted Luna with Collin, who appeared disoriented.

"Collin got hit on the head by a flying brain," explained Luna as they bolted into a large, auditorium like room. There was an odd veiled archway standing on a low platform in the middle.

"Crap!" Harry exclaimed, "no cover!" He threw something at the door they had just come from and ran for the door at the far side of the room. It was locked. "Put some benches between them and us! Luna, you're with me, casting protegos, Hermione, Neville you flank us and pick your targets while I will do suppressive fire".

Hermione nodded, "Don't touch the veil - I've read about it - it's supposed to literally be Death's Door."

Harry's eyes widened, and he spared the fluttering veil hanging from the arch a moments glance. The teens shoved Collin under a bench before taking their positions – Luna by Harry in the middle of the room, and the other two off to either side, part way to the walls. Just as they did, the door burst open and a pack of Death Eaters rushed in.

"Stupify, lumos, reducto" "Protego," "Stupify", "Stupify" came the four almost simultaneous yells. Harry's stream of spells came so fast that it looked like there were two or three people casting from the in front of the Veil. The concentrated spell fire hit the Death Eaters as they were clustered at the doorway. In the first second, at least two Death Eaters dropped, stupified or knocked unconscious. From their positions, Hermione and Neville were able to sneak spells around the shield spells that the Death Eaters Erected between them and Harry.

But then the enemy casters forced their way into the room under protegos and started to spread out.

"Split up! Don't let them circle us!" Harry darted leftwards, casting as he went.

The Death Eaters were surprised by the fierce resistance from the teens. In addition to the energy and speed of youth, the teens had all the training from the DA, in both dueling and group fighting. And this time, they didn't panic.

But the Death Eaters had greater experience and numbers on their side. So slowly, slowly, they pressed the Hogwarts students back towards the archway.

"AHH!" Luna staggered, holding a hand to her side, where a deep gash had just opened up. Her knees slowly buckled as she gasped in pain.

Blood spread down her side.

"Hermione, cover her! Neville, with me!" Harry yelled. He gathered himself to make an all out attack on the Death Eaters, _'At least I'll take some of them with me. No more running away, like last time.'_

"LUMOS. Reducto! Reducto" He moved as he cast, weaving leftwards, to circle the Death Eaters. Neville rose up part way, casting at any Death Eater that slipped past Harry's wand. The ferocious attack forced the enemy to pause and momentary stumble to a halt.

Just as the as the Death Eaters gathered themselves to finish off the two impudent teens, a door off to one side smashed open, and Sirius, Lupin and a pink haired witch that Harry didn't recognize burst in, catching the Death Eaters by surprise.

As the focus of the melee moved away from him, Harry saw his opportunity "Accio tack"

A small something flew across the room and smacked in to the shoulder of a Death Eater between Harry and the door to the Brain room. Moments later, a large goose was flapping about, pummeling those Death Eaters that had been standing too close with its wings.

"honk!"

"Reducto!"

"Stupify"

"HONK!"

The melee quickly degenerated into chaos. Neville had joined up with Lupin and they were working as a team, driving back the now panicking Death Eaters. Harry ran over to Hermione, "Is she ok?" he knelt next to his girlfriend as she cast a healing charm to stop Luna's bleeding. "Are you ok?" added. There was the sound of more fighting coming from elsewhere in the Department of Mysteries as well, but all he could thing about was that Luna had gotten hurt. That brought home the reality that they could die here. He had known it intellectually, but he hadn't understood what that meant, he hadn't FELT it. Until just now. One wrong wand movement, and somebody he cared about could cease to exist.

"Yeah. I stopped Luna's bleeding as best I can. I think the spell only cut through muscle, but a Mediwitch should still be the one to seal it up, just in case.." She gave Harry a quick smile, "Thank you for rescuing me" The smile faltered and faded.

Harry went back to scanning the room for threats. "What's wrong? You did great. I bet you would have gotten away on your own even if we hadn't come." Harry stupified a Death eater that stumbled towards them as he tried to avoid a reducto from the pink haired witch in the tight t-shirt '_Bad Harry, don't get distracted'._

Hermione shook her head as she helped Luna get to the limited cover of the archway's platform "No, it was the ogre in the bathroom all over again. Just like first year, all I could do was hide. I was so scared." There was another crash from the Brain room.

"Hey, you did great after I showed up."

Harry kept looking for any available targets as he talked, but the Death Eaters were now on the ropes. Collin had even managed to cast an expelliarmus up at a Death Eater as he stepped over the bench that he was laying under, catching him in the crotch.

Hermione frowned, "Because I was more embarrassed of being a coward than I was scared."

Harry cast a chain of stupifies, but missed his target, instead almost clipping Remus. He ducked back down to recover, "Welcome to my world" He gave Hermione a quick reassuring smile, "That's my life everyday I.. Oh shit!"

Sirius had been dueling with Belatrix while Remus and the hot pink witch held the remaining two Death Eaters at bay when one of Belatrix's spells smashed through Sirius's protego and threw him at the Veil.

"Accio Sirius!"

The former fugitive was jerked abruptly, changing course so that only his foot caught the veil.

"Stupify reducto stupify!" Hermione cast at Belatrix, to keep the crazy woman from doing anything as Harry caught his godfather. The door to the Brain room burst open, and another Death Eater came running in, pursued by a pair of wizards.

The pink witch managed to take out her opponent and took a moment to see if anybody needed help.

As Harry caught Sirius, the Death Eater ran straight towards them, bounding over the benches and casting desperately as he ran for the door on the wall behind them.

Hermione stood up. "Reducto. Proteg.." she started when the Death Eater made an abrupt slashing motion with his wand, and a great gout of blood burst from Hermione's chest as he raced by.

"Hermione!" Harry let go of Sirius and reached for his girlfriend as she collapsed to the floor.

The pink haired witch dropped to her knees next to Hermione and began casting a healing spell as blood pooled around them. "She needs a blood replenisher!" She jammed a potion into Harry's hand.

Harry pulled the stopper with his teeth and forced the stinking goo down into Hermione's mouth as the witch kept casting, trying to close up the wound. Harry massaged Hermione's throat, getting the potion to go down bit by bit. He wasn't certain how long he was working, getting Hermione to swallow the potion was slow work, but it was some time later that he noticed that the witch had stopped casting.

Harry caste a questioning glance. The plain looking witch in the pink top shook her head. "I'm sorry. She's gone."

Harry looked up, horrified, "No.."

Another door slammed open. "We got Dolohov!" Ron and Terry swaggered in. Ron was bruised, his lip was split wide open and he was holding his arm, but he was also grinning ear to ear - until he saw Harry kneeling next to Hermione's body. "Oh, no. Not again." he ran over and dropped down next to Harry.

"Harry… Harry, if you need anything…"

"Stay here. With her" Harry got up and ran in the direction that the Death Eater, Hermione's murderer, had gone.

*Meta*Meta*

"Reducto!" Harry cast, but his spell was wild, scouring the wall of the corridor but missing his target. The thickset Death Eater dodged, casting a quick reducto over his shoulder. Harry had caught up to Hermione's murderer as he raced for the Atrium and freedom.

When he saw only one teenager following him, he turned around "Avada Kedavra". Harry dropped and rolled under the killing curse. As he came up to his knee he yelled "reducto!".

Again, Harry's anger mangled the spell, and the Death eater was hit by a wash of light that that staggered him, but did no real harm.

"Is that the best you can do, boy?" he growled. his face was gaunt, and his flesh hung loosely on his large frame. "You must be that half breed boy that the Dark Lord keeps talking about."

Harry gathered himself "lumos reducto accio" He didn't bother with a Protego, as his opponent had already shown a willingness to use the Killing Curse. Instead he relied on buffeting the Death Eater and yanking on his wand to foul his aim as he advanced.

The large man grimaced as he tried to get his wand to go where he wanted it. He glanced up at the teen advancing slowly. Harry ducked under the Killing Curse that was sent at him.

The Death Eater had just pulled a knife out from his belt with his left hand when he heard the sound of running feet coming from behind Harry.

Without a word, he turned and ran, almost tripping over a large goose that had been hiding further up the corridor.

Harry swore and ran after him, batting the goose out of his way.

All three of them burst into the Atrium, one after the other. The Death Eater kept running, tearing off towards the floo system fireplaces. Harry came to an an abrupt halt as he watched Voldemort and Dumbledore dueling it out, transfiguring statues, desks and even the floor, as well as casting curses at each other.

"Reducto" Harry yelled, but Voldemort easily blocked his spell. At the same time, the goose flapped by Harry's shoulder. With a flick of Voldemort's wand, the goose exploded into a ball of feathers and gore.

Harry dropped behind a decorative plinth, '_That could have been me.'_ Harry's rationality started to return, _'I am way out of my league here.' _He watched the dual. He wanted to help, but that was VOLDEMORT. Every time he tried to think of something to do, his mind froze at the inescapable fact that the wizard in front of him was Voldemort. a psychotic mass murderer who had more power, more skill, more everything than Harry ever would - the enormity of what he, Harry, was doing came crashing down on him, and he could not force his body to move.

*Meta*Meta*

Harry wasn't certain when the dual between Voldemort and Dumbledore finished, but the next thing he knew, Remus was offering him a piece of chocolate. "Here. This will help." As Harry ate the candy, the former professor helped Harry up, "We need to get you and the other students out of here - Aurors are going to be swarming in any minute, and you don't want to be caught up in that circus.. Dumbledore will take care of any questions"

As Remus guided Harry towards the floo, he called out, "Sirius - take Harry to the Burrow."

Harry glanced up. He was pleased to see that his godfather was ok. Mostly. He was limping and supporting himself on a makeshift cane, as he avoided putting too much weight on the foot that had snagged on the Veil. "Let's go, kiddo. Neither one of us wants to deal with the Ministry parasites." He threw a pinch of floo powder in and the the fire flared green .

As they staggered out of the fireplace into the Weasley's home, Molly Weasleys guided Harry to a chair in the dining room, next to Ron. "Here, dear. I have some chicken soup that I reheated. Eat something, so you don't go into shock. Ron told me what happened."

Harry sat down, a cup of soup in his hands as he stared at the table. Soon, all the Hogwarts students were at the Burrow, and Madame Pomfrey had arrived from Hogwarts with a satchel of supplies. She had already treated Collin and Luna when she made it over over to Harry. Somebody had draped a blanket over his shoulders, but otherwise he had not changed position the whole time.

"Do you want to take a rest?" she asked.

"No" Harry replied in a monotone, "I want to know what happens next."

"It might be some time before we know anything." explained Sirius. He was sitting at Harry's side. Harry blinked. He thought Ron had been there.

"I'll wait."

Sirius nodded and made a shooing motion to Madame Pomfrey.

*Meta*Meta*

It was after midnight when a large black man in Aurors robes flooed over. Molly ran over "What's happening?"

Kingsley Shacklebolt took the proffered cup of tea and sat down with a sigh, "It's been a long night. A team of Aurors arrived shortly after you lot left. After they had verified that the building was secure, Ministry officials began to arrive. Mostly department heads: most junior personal will be told to stay home tomorrow.. Today, I mean. That was about an hour ago. Since then, Dumbledore has been meeting with The Minister of Magic."

He took a sip of his tea. "The tally is ten death eaters captured. Even Fudge can't deny the evidence of his eyes. He still doesn't want to admit that Voldemort has returned, but he's scared. He saw how easily the Death Eaters penetrated the Ministry. If that had happened during the work day, it would have been a massacre. He know it, and his constituents will know it when the morning Prophet comes out. Politically speaking, at this point blaming it on Voldemort is the lesser of two evils." Kingsley stretched and stood back up, "I have to go. There's going to be a lot to do today: Fudge is going to declare that the Ministry is at war."

As he stood up, he turned to Harry, "My condolences, Harry. I heard what happened." Harry nodded to the auror as he returned to the floo.

*Meta*Meta*

"Time to go, Harry"

Harry started awake - he hadn't realized he'd dozed off. Remus was standing by his side. "Where's everybody else?" Harry looked around blearily, but he was the only one at the Weasley's kitchen table.

"All the other students have gone back to Hogwarts. Even Luna - Poppy mobilocorpused her over. Collin's concussion was easier to deal with, and he should be able to go back to class day tomorrow." Remus helped Harry up.

"I spoke to the Grangers. They want to know if you want to say a few words at Hermione's funeral. It's going to be the day after tomorrow."

"I.. I.. no." Harry was never comfortable in the public eye, and now he couldn't deal with it.

"Ok, but you should get some rest anyway.

*Meta*Meta*

"So Voldemort is actually back."

"The ministry just announced that they will do everything in their power to bring his terrorists to justice."

Harry stood quietly and listened. His suit didn't fit right, though many of the other students looked even less comfortable. Neville had somehow dragooned the whole of the DA to attend Hermione's funeral.

"Harry - how are you doing?" Harry looked up to see Fleur looking at him in concern. She was there as part of the French contingent - she had brought along a selection of her coterie as well, to pay their last respects.

"I'm doing better" Harry smiled.

"Good. I am glad that you were able to be close with Hermione. She never really opened up to anybody before. It is sad, but I am happy that she had somebody at least for a little while." Fleur's english vocabulary was apparently not up to expressing the sentiment she wished to impart, as she looked slightly annoyed with herself.

As she stepped aside, Ron came up, "You need anything, talk to me. I've been where you are." He shrugged, embarrassed at opening up and walked off.

"Hey, Harry." Now it was Collin. It seemed like the entire DA was coming by to talk say a couple of words, "I want to say that I think the DA is a great idea, and I want to keep coming and learning, but I can't go on this sort of adventure again. I'm not a hero, I'm just trying to learn how to defend myself and my family."

"Yeah, same here" Harry nodded, "Thank you for your help, though." Collin nodded and moved off.

"Hello. Harry, right?" A middle-aged man came up. "I'm Hermione father. I am glad you were able to come. What you did, what you tried to do.. It is really overwhelming. And seeing all of Hermione's friends." He looked around the small chapel that was filled to overflowing, " I never expected this many to come: she was always such a shy girl. Thank you."

Harry wasn't certain what to say. He had failed, yet here he was being thanked. Harry mumbled a few words and moved off. As he did, he spotted Neville. "Thanks for getting the DA all to come."

Neville nodded, "Yeah. I felt it was the right thing to do. And also, it will remind them what we are fighting for."

"Hmm. How come all of them seem obligated to come up to me? Most of them have spent the past year ignoring me outside of DA."

"I told them to," replied Neville. "They weren't going to come if I told them that it was to teach them why we fight or something like that. Instead I told them that you needed their support, and that it was their due for all the help you gave them." Neville decided not to mention that both reasons were equally true.

"Oh, ok."

The ceremony itself was both longer than Harry expected, but also too short. By lunchtime, he was back at Hogwarts. Classes had been canceled for the day, so he was at a loss as to what to do with himself. As he was pacing the corridors, he spotted a familiar lumbering form.

"Goyle" Harry confronted the DA member.

"Yeah?"

Harry stood there, staring at the larger boy. Greg stared back. "You're father attacked us at the Ministry." Harry said. He wasn't certain where he meant to go with that statement. What he said was no secret - Goyle Sr was one of the Death Eaters that had been arrested.

Goyle nodded slowly. "I know. I'm sorry for that. I'm not real proud of my Da. The people he hangs out with - they are not good people. I don't know what I'm going to do over the summer. Ma is real old fashioned - she won't hear a word against Da." He spoke slowly, sounding genuinely confused. "I was thinking of asking Hannah if I could stay with her, but I don't know if that would be right with her."

Harry shrugged, "I'd offer to have you stay over, but I'm living with the Weasleys. Maybe you could ask Ron? His folks are really nice, and they like having lots of people over. Or ask Nev, but just be careful of his Grandmother - she makes zombies look lively." Harry rubbed his chin as he considered if there were any other options he could offer. Solving other peoples problems let him forget about his own.

"Yeah, ok." Goyle smiled, looking relieved, "Thanks for the ideas."

*Meta*Meta*

"How are you doing, Harry?" Sirius asked. He and Harry were sitting in a muggle fish and chips place - a hole in the wall joint whose only claim to fame was that the food was greasy and the plates were clean. It was on the outskirts of Berwick-upon-Tweed, a small fishing town.

"I want to know who it was," Harry asked intently.

"Ah.." Sirius took a bite of his fish, to give himself time to think. "I don't think I should tell you. Knowing isn't going to make you any happier. And take it from me, revenge isn't the answer either."

"What, you don't think I can take the bastard?" Harry glared at his godfather.

"I don't know. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. He's a killer, but I saw you fight in the DoM. You're good. really good." Sirius sighed, "But that's not what it's about. After I got out of Azkaban, the only thing on my mind was getting Pettigrew. I spent almost a year stalking him, until I finally managed to get that traitor. And you know what? I didn't feel any better. It took me another 6 months to get my head on straight."

"Yeah, and if somebody had told you then what you are telling me now, would you have listened?"

Sirius took a sip of his soda, "No, probably not."

"So, tell me."

"No. Eat your damn lunch." Harry glared at Sirius. The older wizard ran a hand through his hair, "Maybe you'll deal with it better than I did. Maybe you'll get over it."

"And maybe I won't." Harry ripped a chunk of his breaded fish off.

"And maybe you won't. After lunch, let's go watch the seagulls. We can jinx them to crap on the cars."

"Dude. Your sense of fun really juvenile." But despite himself, Harry was smiling.

"And Harry. If you do, accidentally, run into that Death Eater. Call me. I'll help."

*Meta*Meta*

Harry sat, trying to blank his mind. He was practicing occlumency with Professor Lupin. Usually, he could zone out pretty easily, and once his mind was blank, it was pretty easy to use that as a safe zone - whenever he felt Lupin poking at his mind, he would slip back into that blank state, shaking off the mind probe. But today, he was just really upset. He had had a dream about Hermione last night, and now alternated between guilt and anger.

"I can't do it, Professor, not today. All I can think about is that bastard who killed Hermione. I want to kick his ass. And I know I shouldn't, that I should let the Aurors deal with it, but I want to, I want.. Arg!" Harry fingers spasmed like he was clawing at something.

"Harry, use the rage. Inner calm isn't the only touchstone for the occlumency. That is the common eastern way, but you can also use anger to drive it. Feel your anger, whenever I enter your mind, go back to the anger and let it suffuse you. It will repel any mental invasions just as well."

That worked better.

*Meta*Meta*

The rest of the school year passed slowly. While before people had been avoiding Harry because of the Daily Prophet's slander, now they were avoiding him because they were at a loss as to what to say. And Harry didn't make it easy on those that did try to reach out, spending most of his time studying for the OWLs or practicing martial arts with Ron and Neville.

"Harry, we need you for the DA." Ron prompted, "Neville and I can keep the classes going, but we are losing the older students - they aren't excited about it anymore."

Harry sighed. "I think the older students are ditching because the OWLs (or NEWTs) are in a little less than a month. I think we should put the DA on hiatus until next year. I'll help run, I promise."

"Ok, I'll hold you to it."

*Meta*Meta*

Harry sat down in the great hall, along with all the other fifth year student. All except Hermione. It was time to take the Owls, and Harry felt her loss all the more keenly, as this had been the high point of her year. Harry took a look at the thick roll of parchment. '_Only Hermione would __look__ forwards to a test'._

Harry had studied with Terry. After the Department of Mysteries, his classmate had done an about face, and was trying to spend more time with him. Either to make up for the rest of the year, or out of a sense of duty, to provide moral support. Harry didn't ask. Either way was fine.

And there was no way that he would have been able to cover all this material on his own.

Harry started work. His hand was soon stiff from all the writing. _'I don't know this! we never covered this in class!'_ the Herbology section was a complete disaster, and Harry took a couple of breaks, to stare at the ceiling, hoping for inspiration. But at least when it came time for the Defense Against the Dark Arts, the questions weren't so bad, and Potions was a breeze._ 'I guess Snape really is a good teacher._' Or maybe not - Harry heard muttered swearing and what sounded like a quill being snapped coming from Ron, who was sitting at the table behind him.

Finally, the OWLs were done, and the school year with them. It had all ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.

'_This can't happen again. No more going with the flow, and staying out of trouble. Trouble comes looking for me, and next year, I'll be ready.' _Harry stood up and walked out of the exam room. _'It's going to be payback time.'_

Harry collected his trunk and walked down to Hogsmeade station. As he walked resolutely onto the Hogwarts express, one thought filled his mind.

_'And Voldemort is going to die.'_

END

* * *

><p>This is the end of the second story of my trilogy. The final part will be titled Harry Potter: Hero. I am having a little trouble with it, so I am going to take a little extra time - expect to see the first chapter in the beginning of January.<p> 


	8. The next story

This story concludes in "Harry Potter: Hero", of which the first chapter has just been posted.

you can find it in my profile (along with all the other stories I've written)


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